High School kids take the Knee.

Taking the Knee

Taking the knee during the National Anthem is bad behavior.  It is an affront to the men and women that have gone into harm's way to preserve and service the American way of life.  Be it the military, peace corps, fire brigade or law enforcement. 

A protest has its value.  We as a nation of people pride ourselves on the right to assemble and protest too.  That doesn't mean we always should.  And when we do, it should have an effect of pressuring powers to make a change - in the right direction.   Taking the knee is not the right venue, nor does it pressure power to change.  If there is change it is negative - the wrong direction. 

In fact, taking the knee drives a wedge between people.  Where I was color blind, a supporter of equal rights for everyone, now I'm less so.  I grow weary of all the rhetoric about how horrible I am because I'm white.  The news feeds on negativity.  It feeds on the few injustices that police affect on people of minority and ignores the tens of thousands of good men and women that put their lives on the line to protect and maintain order in our society.  These athletics protesting in this manner makes me sad.  Look at the irony of protesting a country and flag and it's national song that blood was shed for to give them the right to protest.  Go to North Korea or China or Iran and try that. 

I'm much more temperate in my response.  I understand those that are more passionate about the taking the knee and give out death threats and take some physical action like tire slashing.  They are wrong to do that.  Yet, is protesting in such a manner supposed to widen the rift of racism or close it?  If those that take the knee think it's going to make things better for them, narrow the divide between races; they are wrong.  They have become part of the problem, not the solution.

Kids are not in school to protest.  Public school is funded so they can learn skills and develop abilities that they can take to the world at large and not have to go on the public dole or have to live with mom and dad the rest of their lives.  Sport is an extracurricular component that develops working as a team, like a group of programmers developing a new operating system. Or, it might be so the entertainment industry will have a well of sports metaphors to use in their programming.  It has it value.  The kids are in school to learn about protesting, not do it.  Yet, a school like Garfield feeds on notoriety.  So, what do they teach their kids?  Seems it's thumb your nose at anything you don't like.  I don't blame the kids.  They are ignorant of patriotism, sacrifice, and selflessness.  Their mentors and teachers do them no good service by letting them act out and support them in it.  

"Thomas, a fit 37-year-old with an infectious grin, a charismatic command, and boyish charm, doesn’t have regrets."

From <https://thinkprogress.org/garfield-take-a-knee-8415e57a7a3e/>

He should have regrets because of the direction he and others are taking these kids one or more of them will accost the wrong people at the wrong time in the name of protest and get hurt or killed.  Although it shouldn't be that way - when you spit in someone's eye a nose is going to get bent.  Is taking the knee, protest, what you want your kids to have as their crowning achievement in life?  If so, you are part of the problem too. 

Equality and Empowerment

Here is a post from Dave Higgins and my response.

Wondering if one of the reasons sex/gender/race/&c. equality doesn't get as much traction in the middle because so many activists talk about it within a zero-sum framework.

For example, the idea I came across earlier today that men can't be feminists because they benefit from male privilege so lack the ability to genuinely desire women's empowerment. Leaving aside the issue of whether humans are capable of giving up a benefit for the good of others, it assumes empowering someone necessarily requires someone else losing out.

Now, there might be some situations where that is true: if I have a sandwich and you don't, sharing that sandwich between us in any way requires that I lose some sandwich. However, many situations aren't a "there is a small finite number of sandwiches" situation: the idea of hiring practices meaning someone has to lose out on a job is an illusion caused by a belief (i.e. not a physical law) that money should come from work - after all, if benefits were treated as a neutral and sufficient way to be paid, mothers &c. wouldn't be driven into seeking work and some "average" people in work wouldn't seek it, so the number of people seeking jobs would reduce; and the worth of money itself is an illusion caused by the belief we shouldn't just share everything without expecting "fair" recompense.

The idea of work as a double illusion, a mirage seen in a fun-house mirror, is an example not a solution: building a better world requires more complex assessment than simply declaring a specific version of anarchy is perfect. But accepting the premise that giving some groups more than they have requires taking things away from white, cis men is alienating the people who, by the activists own words, have the most power; which might be as daft a strategy for gaining popular support and change as it seems.

~~#~~

I’m not entirely sure I agree with all you put forth as far as why the people in the middle (I'm assuming blue and white collar working class) don’t give equality much traction.

I think the reason the equality issue is ignored by those in the middle is they are busy getting on with life. Traditional roles of male and female are set as they have been since Adam and Eve. The women have the envious job of teaching their children to be God fearing people or at the least to be socially functional in the world of the majority. The men earn the resources to make that possible. Of course, then the lines blur over the centuries between the two, but the basic tenants still hold.

They don't pay much attention to LGBT, bigotry, or gender disparities until forced too. The forcing comes in the form of protests, law suits, and defamatory speech. Some of it is esoteric and some if it is tangible. The idea of someone has to give up something to bring about equality goes against the grain for most that have to be forced to think about it or actually do it.

The protest may shut down the freeway for a while, and a person has to give up some time at home because they can't get there. No big deal, yet if they can't get to the school play starring little darling or make it to the recreation center to sign up Bobby and Susy for Little League then it becomes a bit more serious. Hopefully, not to the point of someone getting run over. When it is over, it's back to life as usual - almost. There is a lingering resentment that lies as an ember in the soul waiting to be feed fuel and flare up. That flare could come in the form of voting no on an LGBT initiative giving same sex couples maternity leave for adopting a baby as an example. That would give them equality with the woman that undergoes natural child birth as far as hours at work are concerned. Gotta be fair - right (wrong).

Application of education, innovation in and out of the work place coupled with hard work, be that swinging an axe or punching a keyboard, has made Americans the best off of all the people in the world. To come to this point has been done predominately on the guidance of the white male. Thus, is the power. That power is shifting. Some through force like protestors and anarchist want, but mostly through demonstration of ability and will of those perceived to be not equal assuming leading position.

Empowerment in relation to women is demeaning by its nature. To be empowered means that someone is giving you the okay to do whatever within the bounds the empowerment dictates. Empowerment has its roots in business. I can empower the cashier to give a ten percent discount on a damaged good presented to checkout without calling me, the manager, to the front to approve it. Thereby, the liberal white male dominated power structure says we are going to empower you women means that the women can do what they want within the bounds the liberals set. That doesn't institute equality.

Your finish is astute. I would even go further and state there is no widespread support to be had for so many of the fringe issues because not all change is good.