Lets say you are on a company outing to a Cubs game. Everyone is there along with your boss and the company has bought the tickets and the beer and hot dogs and the peanuts. It is now time for the National Anthem. Everyone stands up and some people put their hands over their hearts. You are a middle class person with a house, kids, mortgage, dog, cat. You are solidly in the middle of the middle and now everyone is standing and you decide you do not agree with some of the policies of the country or maybe you just don't go for the whole patriotic thing. So you take a knee. Your boss stares at you. His boss stares at you. You explain you disapprove of some things going on in America and so you took a knee. Your career is over.
You may not get fired that day. But essentially you better start looking for something else because from then on you are marked. Most middle class people can not take a knee. They have to feed their kids and pay their mortgage. They have to tow the line. Professional football players who make millions of dollars and get to be on television and live a life most people would kill for, they can take a knee. It is part of being at the top of the pyramid. Now you should be able to take a knee. No one is saying you should not be able to express how you feel. It is part of our basic rights as Americans.
But for most of us we can not take a knee. We do not have a million dollars in the bank. Only the lucky few can do that. Is this fair? No. But we are used to that. So it is the NFL players right to take a knee. It is their right to bring up issues that need to be discussed. It is their right to make a million dollars from playing football. But I will say this; to whom much is given much is expected. Interpret that as you will.
Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair
You may not get fired that day. But essentially you better start looking for something else because from then on you are marked. Most middle class people can not take a knee. They have to feed their kids and pay their mortgage. They have to tow the line. Professional football players who make millions of dollars and get to be on television and live a life most people would kill for, they can take a knee. It is part of being at the top of the pyramid. Now you should be able to take a knee. No one is saying you should not be able to express how you feel. It is part of our basic rights as Americans.
But for most of us we can not take a knee. We do not have a million dollars in the bank. Only the lucky few can do that. Is this fair? No. But we are used to that. So it is the NFL players right to take a knee. It is their right to bring up issues that need to be discussed. It is their right to make a million dollars from playing football. But I will say this; to whom much is given much is expected. Interpret that as you will.
Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair
