Missing The Point On Purpose

The anger and outrage about NFL players taking a knee during the anthem is certainly the topic du jour.  It became a topic, because Trump made it so with his asinine comments in Alabama - comments that got whoops and cheers from his "base."

Needless to say, social media has taken its half-assed take on this.  The most confusing response I've heard is that players who take a knee are disrespecting veterans.

Where the hell does that come from? Is it because veterans love the flag more than other people?  OK, I love my kids more than other people, but if other people don't love me kids more than I do, that's none of my concern.  Is it because veterans fought for the flag?  Who fights for laundry?  You fight for the Constitution and the principles that made this country unique.  Nothing is more American than protesting peacefully.  It's literally right there in the Bill of Rights, topic #1.

If you want to say they are disrespecting the country as a whole, OK.  I'll agree with you there.  Yes, by taking the knee, players are disrespecting a country that cares more about their posture during an anthem than about the unnecessary killing of African Americans by police.  Sadly, by missing the point on purpose, we are talking about the flag, the anthem, free speech...but not about the racism that is at the heart of this protest.

The people who are upset over this are also upset when protesters march in the streets, when they block traffic, when they shout down white supremacists.  Are you really upset with the protest?  Or are you upset with the idea that - contrary to the sanctities we toss about on MLK Day - we really are a nation with a serious race problem.  A problem that was largely invisible to white Americans until cell phones allowed us to film a man being choked to death for selling loosies, a child shot for playing with a toy gun, a man shot sitting peacefully in his car, a woman dying after being arrested for no obvious reason, and on and on and on.

It is much easier to retreat behind empty pieties about the flag than to have an honest discussion about the fact that black people in this country are far too often killed because the color of their skin presents a threat to some police officers.