FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART 28

Straight number because this is serious

RIDICULOUS

There has been nothing sublime the past couple weeks with President Trump and the right wing talk radio nattering nabobs of culture attacking the NFL and its players over the National Anthem protests.

How It All Began

 The Republicans and the right wingers own the high ground on social issues with the majority of Americans in the Heartland thinking symbols mean more than substance.

  

When Colin Kaepernick started this movement last year he explained why he was kneeling during the National Anthem, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

I think he stated quite clearly to him kneeling during the anthem was about race. But President Trump, of course, saw something else, ‘In a series of tweets Mr Trump said that the issue of kneeling was about “respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem,” and “has nothing to do with race”, adding “[the] NFL must respect this.”

President Trump wasn’t the only one to ignore the underlying reasons, which were clearly stated by Kaepernick, and jump to the culture wars of us verses them. Talk radio, which is totally the domain of the Republicans and conservatives, have used their platform to stoke the flames of division taking President Trump view, lock, stock and barrel and it seems tapping into their movement in the Heartland.

Jump forward to the rest of the NFL this year taking up the mantel from Kaepernick, who is no longer employed. Our own Aaron Rodgers has assumed the leadership role from Kapernick, who actually was just being a leader of himself because very few players joined him last year, and explained what linking arms means in this season’s wider version of kneeling before last Thursday’s home game against the Bears, "This is about equality. This is about unity and love and growing together as a society and starting a conversation around something that may be a little bit uncomfortable for people. But we've got to come together and talk about these things and grow as a community, as a connected group of individuals in our society, and we're going to continue to show love and unity, and this week we're going to ask the fans to join in as well and come together and show people that we can be connected and we can grow together.”

The Packers organization issued a statement asking their fans to link arms in “unity”. The previous Sunday against the Bengals the entire team linked arms, but Martellus Bennett, Lance Kendricks and rookie Kevin King, who sat on the bench (not kneel) during the National Athem.

Of course, the “unity” and “equality”, which was clearly stated, was ignored and it is all about the “Flag” and “disrespect” by the right, clear and simple.

Thursday night the Packers were booed by their hometown fans and all over the media people were burning their Packers jerseys and saying they would give up their season tickets, which we’ll how many actually do.

I live right smack in the middle of the Heartland and all I hear from the people in my region is that they are not watching the NFL anymore, ever again. The ratings are down, but they were falling before the players came together two weeks ago in response to President Trump going on the offensive.

The NFL players and owners have lost the war and the NBA has saw that and the players, coaches, owners and the commissioner have decided not to get involved, at all. There is no way the NFL players and owners come out of this on the plus side. The only way to end this before the damage gets too severe is to “shut up and play”. I hate saying that, but it is what it is. The backlash will only get worse if the protests continue and that is RIDICULOUS.