Taking a Knee Before Sporting Events - Has Colin Kaepernick's Protest Become Bastardized?

[DonRocks]

"Stephen Curry Says New Sports Illustrated Cover Is 'Terrible' for Leaving Off Colin Kaepernick" on bbc.com

I agree with Stephen Curry - the "taking a knee" issue wouldn't even exist were it not for Colin Kaepernick.

Aside from that, Kaepernick's original protest was about *police treatment of black people*, and yet the entire issue has morphed into "disrespecting servicemen and the American flag" - give me a break.

On a related note (and it's absolutely related), this would be the funniest 1-2 Twitter war I've seen, if it didn't have such enormous repercussions:

1) Donald Trump
2) LeBron James

My only problem with James' reply is that he felt the need to explain and justify his Tweet, which he did here.

Regardless of what this symbolism becomes, It's important to remember that none of this was originally about disrespecting "the military" or "the flag," for Pete's sake. This also shows just how powerful the American Presidency is when it comes to being on the bully pulpit - my personal views of things should be obvious if you follow me outside this website, but I'm not going to use this venue for anything other than intelligent, respectful discourse (discussing the issue itself - regardless of your views - is encouraged; personal insults and partisan politics remain outside our scope).

That said, is it correct for *any* U.S. President, regardless of party, to call a peacefully demonstrating NFL player a "son of a bitch?" I honestly wonder if he had an erection when he screamed, "He's fired!" - the sad thing is, for once, I'm not trying to be funny.

[zgast]

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Regardless of what this symbolism becomes, It's important to remember that none of this was originally about disrespecting "the military" or "the flag," for Pete's sake. This also shows just how powerful the American Presidency is when it comes to being on the bully pulpit - my personal views of things should be obvious if you follow me outside this website, but I'm not going to use this venue for anything other than intelligent, respectful discourse (discussing the issue itself - regardless of your views - is encouraged; personal insults and partisan politics remain outside our scope).

The kneeling was actually the result of him being told that sitting during the anthem was disrespectful to the military.  The kneeling was suggested by a former Green Beret as a way of showing respect for military members while still getting his point across.

[Al Dente]

It seems that the sacrifices service members make aren't for protecting our 1st Amendment freedoms.

The NFL uses the flag as a marketing tool. 

The people who proudly display the Confederate flag and lose their shit over taking a knee, are completely blind to the irony.

Someone once tweeted, "Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or a year in jail." That's some serious totalitarian horseshit right there.

Given our president's grasp of history, he probably couldn't tell you what the 13 stripes represent.

I'm trying to be careful of what I say, but the phony indignation of certain politicians is nothing but a dog-whistle for the nationalist element of American voters. It disgusts me.

[Tweaked]

Much of what we see today at sporting events with regard to the national flag and the military, including NFL players being on the field hands over hearts, stems from a Dept of Defense program which paid NFL and other sports leagues to hold patriotic "events" including giant flags on the field, re-enlistment ceremonies, military appreciation days, military bands, even families being reunited with their service member returning home.  It was a program that was dubbed "paid patriotism" and DoD spent milions of dollars on it.

edited to add:  in 2015 Sens. McCain and Flake released a report identifying $53 million in contracts between DoD and various sports leagues/teams.

 

[DonRocks]

On 9/29/2017 at 3:30 PM, Al Dente said:

Given our president's grasp of history, he probably couldn't tell you what the 13 stripes represent.

I've been looking for an "in" to say this, but haven't seen it in months - until now.

If I were granted one, and only one, question to ask the President in public, it would be this: "Here's a blank map of the USA - please name each state and its capital."

Hillary Clinton could fart out the answer.