Stars and Stripes forever, fleeting notes on protests
Random musings about kneeling, sitting, arm-linking and deep-thinking, while not bending, folding and spindling ...
Confucius say, If you have a protest and nobody gets angry or inconvenienced, you do not have a protest. You have a get-together, a hootenanny, a klatch or kegger, a confab or company picnic. But not a protest.
Mandatory patriotism is an oxymoron.
If, as many contend, there is a better time and place for players to protest, we can rule out their living rooms. I’ve tried staging various protests in my living room and got very little notice or reaction. I plan to try the patio next.
Eric Reid of the 49ers, Michael Bennett, Doug Baldwin and many others are takthe ing a wrecking ball to the stereotype of the ignorant and ungrateful football star.
If the president of a country doesn’t like the way that country is run, based on its Constitution, then in the words of one very famous world leader (not Confucius), “Maybe he should find a country that works better for him.”
No idea whether Colin Kaepernick planned it this way, but his silence makes a loud noise. Sometimes (Confucius say), it is wiser to let events and other people speak for you.
Please, no more pleas to stop playing the anthem before sports events. Maybe down the road, but in the current tense climate, that would be a nuclear bomb dropped into the debate/discussion.
Strange bedfellows: We in news media have been identified by some as “the enemy of the America people.” Each protesting athlete has been identified as a “son of a bitch” who should be fired. What a cool club I’m now in!
We need a name for our new club of journalists and athletes. Since we’re all making it up as we go along, and we’re all either sitting or kneeling, how about “Sons of Britches”?