It is not the military that is being attacked, it is the country. The military contains alot of people who love and sacrifice for this country so they are affected more than most other people.
Standing at attention for the national anthem goes back to the 1890’s. It was done as a sign of respect for the country. Standing for the anthem at sports events goes back to the 1918 world series. Over the past 100 years it has become a custom to stand for the national anthem before a sporting event. Everyone knows that standing is a way to pay respect to the country and that not standing is a way to show disrespect for the country. They are trying to show disrespect and people are reacting to their intention.
It’s fine to feel that way. But we don’t need to ask for some people’s heads/jobs because they don’t agree with you.
eta: Also… non issue? There’s clearly an issue (or two) here.
I understand what the protests are about. They are protesting the entire country, that is why they picked the anthem and the flag, the predominant symbols of our country, to protest. Yet, there are people who claim that the protests are just about cops not shooting black people for sport.
Everybody agrees that black lives matter, that innocent people should not be shot by polices, and that discrimination is wrong. That is not what the controversy is about. The controversy is whether our country is a great country with a few bad cops or an oppressive and racist nation that does not deserve respect or honor.
Why?, companies are always trying to brand themselves in positive ways. Subaru tries to sell cars by claiming to love gay people, yoplait tries to sell yogurt by helping support breat cancer research, and the NFL does the same thing with breast cancer awareness. How is it disrespectful towards the flag and anthem to say that your organization loves this country?
I agree that no one should lose their head over this. I am less sure about their jobs. The NFL players are entertainers whose job it is to sell tickets. If their actions make it less likely that the tickets will be sold then they are not doing their jobs. However, free speech is such an important value that no one should have their job threatened because of their political opinions, but I can see the other side.
The non-issue is the idea that police have declared open season on black males. Just because a couple bad cops have shot black men without reason does not make it an issue any more than the fact of what OJ did means that the NFL players have declared war on blonde women.
I find it disrespectful to use such a supposedly sacred symbol for massive financial gain. Yet using even such sacred symbols for financial gain is arguably the most American of acts.
On the (my) bolded part above, I’d tend to agree with you. My answer should be a little more nuanced but -overall- I get you.
Comparing multiple black people getting shot to (the actions of) one nutjob in the NFL probably wasn’t the best example you could have used. If you really think that the issue is as isolated as Nicole losing her life, you’ve some research to do.
They are protesting racial injustice in this country. Nothing so narrow as “the police”, nothing so broad as “the country”, but rather specific aspects of the country.
Plainly, “everybody” doesn’t. They probably don’t actively wish for innocent people to be gunned down by police, but when it happens to a black man, they come down on the side of the police facing no consequences for their misconduct. We see this over and over again: prosecutors try to persuade grand juries not to indict, and the grand juries comply.
As above, it’s somewhere in between. A great country with a few bad cops would have no problem putting those cops in prison. Why is so hard for us to do that?
It’s a little more nuanced than that. As referenced in the article I quoted above, it’s about whether patriotism means recognizing the existing greatness of our country, or recognizing the ways in which it could be greater. The liberal viewpoint, that the most important thing is to look to a better future, and to emphasize the changes that need to be made rather than the good things that already exist, is a valid and worthy position; as valid and worthy as a conservative viewpoint that wants to emphasize the ways in which the country has been great in the past.
I have done the research. It is not just OJ who likes to kill women, it was Rae Carruth, Robert Rozier, Jovan Belcher, and De’Von Hall. Obviously there is something about black football players that makes them want to kill women.
Or, both of these phenomenon, NFL killers, and police shootings, are both examples of the Chinese robber fallacy. Any large group of people such as the 1.1 million US cops will have examples of heinous behavior, but that does not mean it is a systemic problem. Roland Fryer, did a studythat showed blacks are not more likely than whites to be shot by police. This whole thing is a media generated moral panic, like the black church burnings, the satanic cult daycares, or shark attacks.
As a conservative I would say patriotism means both. This country would be greater if it outlawed abortion, and had fewer taxes and regulations. However, despite these and numerous other flaws it is still great.
If you had two suitors, one who said you were beautiful and one who said you would be beautiful if you got your teeth fixed, lost twenty pounds, and a got a decent haircut, which would you think actually loved you?
Some polling:
http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages...0803-9759.aspx
50% of black people report that they have personally been mistreated by police. Another 15% report that they have not, but a family member has.
So that’s 65% of black people who have either been mistreated, or have had a family member mistreated.
In comparison: 28% of Hispanic people report being personally mistreated, with another 23% reporting family members having been mistreated. 3% of white people report being personally mistreated by police, with another 5% reporting that family members have been mistreated.
With these numbers, there doesn’t seem to be any chance whatsoever that most black people will see law enforcement as allies to trust or rely upon, and will be much more likely to see them as dangerous and untrustworthy enemies to be feared.
Unless you just think black people are liars, I suppose.
If one of them said that I’d be beautiful if I stopped mistreating black people, then that one loves me in a much more mature and more productive way.
In a funny way, your analogy demonstrates my point. It focuses on superficial changes in appearance, rather than the qualities I would consider in judging a country or a suitor. I would prefer something like “If you had two suitors, one of whom said you were a good person, and the other of whom said you would be a better person if you stopped using racial slurs, paid your employees a decent wage, and stopped drinking and driving, which would you think actually cared about sharing your values?”
But that aside, if you agree that patriotism can sometimes mean emphasizing ways that the country can be improved, can you accept that those people who are taking a knee in order to express their dissatisfaction with the justice system are being patriotic in their own way?
I’m sorry, but did you just actually say that kneeling during the National Anthem as a way to point out injustice is somehow more disrespectful than wearing the United States Flag as underwear?
My question is, how do you put it on while standing at attention?
Still isn’t respectful. So if your problem is with failing to show proper respect to the flag, then you should be pissed at the makers and wearers of such things.
But what you’re really doing is effectively saying, “these people are showing disrespect in a way that makes me feel like they and I are on the same side of our political and cultural divides, but those people are doing so in a way that IMHO puts them on the opposite side of those divides from me.”
And you know this, how? Please give for-instances of where “[t]hey are quite explicit about this.”
And “and there is no other way to interpret their actions other than an explicit sign of disrespect”? I presented an interpretation of their actions that is very much the opposite of a sign of disrespect. Therefore there is such a way, and your statement is FALSE.
Thanks for playing, though.
Mind reading.
More mind reading.
The controversy is about whether we as a nation are going to do anything about our near-unanimous agreement that black lives matter, when law enforcement frequently treats blacks as if their lives are worth zilch.
Believing something doesn’t mean much if you don’t act on your beliefs.
Man, those couple bad copshave gone on one hell of a shooting spree. But they’re still out there, killing black people. Maybe someone had better put them in prison.
Which part of a football game should football players protest during to appropriately signal their disgruntlement with the police?
You should already know how this will be answered - “At no point during a football game should football players protest”