So do you think your E-mail will solver, or lessen the problems you see as human rights issues? If you it think will solve the problem by all means it is worth it, but if all it will accomplish is drive a wedge between, you too, why bother?
Which is more likely, to be achieved national harmony, or family harmony?
The NFL is again addressing the issue this offseason and Jerry Jones made some comments that I think hit the nail on the head, but probably not in the way he thinks.
He says that he and the fans want to “zero in on football”. I’ve heard similar sentiments from some fans who are against the anthem protests. They supposedly watch football as a form of escapism. That’s all well and good, but if this is the actual reason, aren’t they missing the obvious solution of just not doing the national anthem altogether?
ETA, Orwell, in post 35, expresses this sentiment. I’ll ask Orwell and any others with similar feelings, if you watch an NFL game to escape political turmoil and such, why even have the anthem before sporting events?
I would be 100% OK with not having the national anthem before the game, or at least not showing it on TV. Or let the players stay in the locker room or tunnel during the anthem. Doesn’t matter to me one iota.
But that doesn’t mean if they DO have the anthem and players are present, that it’s reasonable for paid employees who are on the clock (so to speak) to use it as a forum for any sort of protest. Protest on your own time, not on your employer’s property, and don’t diminish enjoyment for the people who are paying the tab for the whole thing. It’s as simple as that, to me, anyway.
I still think it’s fallacious to think of it as just any other employer/employee relationship.
The players get paid a lot, but they also earn the owners and the NFL an incredible amount of money.
Most employees are more or less replaceable. Most professional football players are not. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the entire business of professional football rests on the skills of +/- 100 extremely talented people.
That puts them in a rather unique position. So to speak.
Right, because freedom of speech stops at the entryway to AT&T Stadium.
It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. But then I’m less snowflakey and Trumpy than many.
No NFL player has been arrested for protesting during the national anthem.
But, what you do on company time can be regulated. Heck, I can’t even go on Facebook and exclaim that I love my company. If I did, I’d probably be written up or fired, but I wouldn’t be arrested.
The protest doesn’t bother me either, but it doesn’t seem like it’s a free speech issue. Nobody is getting arrested. If the league can fine you for writing on your cleats or saying a referee sucks, why can’t they make a rule about the anthem?
And I’d be all for getting rid of anthems before sporting events, but I don’t see much chance of that happening anytime soon.
The US Constitution won’t allow the government to take away our freedom of speech.
I haven’t checked up on it but I don’t think they added anything about the NFL in there.
Update: N.F.L. Teams Will Be Fined for Players’ Anthem Kneeling
Awesome. Nothing makes me feel more patriotic than watching a bunch of guys stand for an anthem because they’ll be fined if they don’t.
Go America.
They can make a rule about the anthem. That’s what is currently being discussed by the owners. It seems the issue is that not all the owners are on the same page about what should be done. The current rule states that players should stand for the anthem, not that they must, and therefore the players that haven’t stood have not been breaking the NFL rules.
Ninja’ by Eonwe on there now being a new rule.
So the gods have spoken- stand for the anthem or stay in the locker room. I think it’s the cowardly solution, but corporate America gets real squeamish to see persons of color expressing dissent.
At least they can stay off the field during if they choose.
It will give the Snowflake Patriots something else to whine about. “Waaaahhhhh! Our quarterback wasn’t on the field standing for the anthem! My entire life is ruined! Some people aren’t behaving exactly as I want them to! Waaahhhh!”
Yeah this is pretty much what I just put on FB.
But at least one player is being blacklisted.
Sure. It’s Jingo Theater, not actual patriotism, and to whatever extent it’s coerced is the extent to which it’s contrary to our principles.
My brother is an Air Force veteran, and he says Free Speech is just one of things he feels is worth dying for. He doesn’t believe in bringing politics to the work place because he believes that one has to earn one’s contracted salary by coming to work and performing the agreed upon duties, not using one’s work place as a political platform or to promote any kind of personal agenda. He has no problem at all with the message itself, however.
No one is being blacklisted. Kaepernick wasn’t initially protesting, he was channeling his inner Cam Newton and was pouting on the sideline after losing the starting job. If he could help an NFL team win games, he’d be signed. But, no one wants their backup QB holding press conferences unless they’ve just saved children by running into a burning building.
Freedom of speech is a constitutional and government issue, not an employment one. Does your employer allow you to hold protests in the lobby or parking lot during your scheduled work hours? This has nothing to do with someone exercising their free speech, which they are free to do any other time of the week.
The NFL basically did the worst thing possible, because now it guarantees that if someone kneels it’s going to make headlines.
They have the option to stay in the locker room.
So if you make a ton of money you don’t have to do what your employer says? It doesn’t matter that they’re skilled, or that they make their employers a bunch of money. All public employees are a cog in a series of machines that are supposed to be making their company money. It doesn’t matter if it is a call center in India or a professional sports player; when an employee starts hurting the company’s revenue; they should be able to do something about that. All of these football players are free to sit at any National Anthem in public, when they are not representing their employer. To me it’s silly there’s even an argument over this. I don’t even think it’s a political stance, although I see I may be in the minority based on other comments in this thread.
I don’t think its cowardly, I think it’s just business. If the number of people watching football games increased because they supported players sitting for the National Anthem; this rule never would have passed. The NFL is making a business decision to pull fans back in. The other solution (impossible to implement) would be to get the media to stop making it a huge issue. Just don’t report on it. They’ve all agreed to not show streakers or other fans who run on the field because they realized that media attention is what these guys crave. Just do the same with the players exhibiting Attention-Seeking-Behavior.