Monday, November 6, 2017
Standing for Our National Anthem
This past weekend, my wife and I participated in a walk to fight ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease) event at the Great Park in Irvine, California. We were representing a close friend of ours, John, who has ALS. (I also lost a first cousin to ALS several years ago.) Several hundred people participated in this walk representing family or close friends, both living and deceased.
John is a Vietnam vet who may have been exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. Because of that, the VA is providing all his medical treatment.
Prior to the start, a lady sang the National Anthem. Rather than remain seated in his wheelchair as he could have, John struggled to stand and remove his cap. Seeing him struggle, two of us assisted him up and held his arms while he stood for the National Anthem.
I Immediately got to thinking that if John in his wheelchair could get up and stand for the National Anthem, why can't these NFL football players? Here are men so physically blessed, yet they can't bring themselves to perform a simple gesture that John had to struggle to do to honor our country.
On Sunday, the NFL, under the feckless leadership of Roger Goodell, held a "Salute to Service" weekend with all the coaches dressed up in camouflage garb. It was supposed to honor our military. Sorry, but to me it was a phony effort to reclaim some of the lost credibility and fan support which has been lost as a result of the kneeling exhibitions.
Frankly, I am sick and tired of hearing whether Colin Kaepernick, who started this whole mess last year, is being blackballed by NFL teams. He is now filing a grievance claiming that he is the victim of collusion by the NFL not to sign him, as if he has a right to a contract. (He is a free agent.)
If Kaepernick and these overgrown, overpaid guys who can't stand for our National Anthem want to know what a real man is, I can introduce them to my friend John.
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6 comments:
What about all of the veterans who have come forward in support of the protests?
What about them? Do you think they represent a majority of vets? I don't. How many of the NFL players who kneel are vets? Certainly not Kapernick.
I don't know if it's a majority or not. But do we care about what vets think? Or do we only care about what the vets who already agree with us think? Maybe we can acknowledge that vets are human beings and they don't all have the same views about patriotism, the anthem, protests, etc.
If it was a majority of vets who supported him, would that make you think differently one way or the other?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you have the "wrong" response to Kapernick. I just don't buy this narrative that it's vets versus players. There are a lot of feelings on this issue, and it was a vet who gave him the idea to kneel (instead of just sit down during the anthem).
You can find vets who have all kinds of opinions. You can point out it was a vet who shot up the church in Texas last week. What I don't think you can do is make the case that most vets agree with Kaepernick and those who kneel. To my knowledge there has been no survey conducted among vets on this issue, but those I have talked to agree with me. We all acknowledge they have the legal right to do so, but others have the right to speak out in condemnation.
Fair enough. Most of the vets I know agree with the protestors. I guess we travel in different circles.
We may also be of different generations.
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