On Friday, November 10, 2017, a friend attended a women’s volleyball tournament in Baltimore. John is a fervent supporter of several Randolph-Macon University teams, and his “girls”, as he calls them, were playing Swarthmore University. During the National Anthem, many of the Swarthmore players took a knee, protesting, presumably, racism, injustice, and perhaps conditions in the United States in general.
Just as in the NFL’s protests, this “kneeling” during the Anthem abounds with irony. The members of the Swarthmore team represent a university where the annual tuition, room and board, and other fees are, without financial aid, close to $65,000. So here are these young women, kneeling to protest the supposed injustices of our culture while enrolled in an exclusive institution of higher learning, their educations funded, one assumes, by mommies, daddies, and alumni with deep pockets, all of whom are awash in enough money to support such an endeavor.
Meanwhile, the average salary for players in the NFL is $1.9 million dollars a year. The league’s minimum base salary, paid this year to only two rookies, is $450,000.
Keeping these figures in mind, let’s delve a little deeper into the kneeling protest.
Kneeling during the National Anthem does incite controversy and drama, and in some cases might make for an effective protest. Unfortunately, no one knows exactly why these players are kneeling. Many of us watching the kneelers see a group of privileged young people engaging in an exercise of smug self-satisfaction, copycatting others who initiated the same exercise. “Look at me,” the players seem to say to the rest of us. “I’m good, America is wicked, and if you aren’t kneeling, you are wicked too.”
It’s farcical. If we still had a sense of humor in this country, we’d laugh these people off the playing fields and gymnasium courts.
But since laughter is verboten toward the PC crowd, let’s play a game instead. Let’s pretend the players are protesting racism, particularly by the police.
Okay. So next let’s pretend those who kneel are interested in genuine change rather than in merely putting on a show of self-righteousness. Let’s say they really want to alleviate poverty and racism.
Here are some suggestions for them.
*Find a worthy cause, tithe your money, and support that cause. Take 10 percent of your 1.9 million dollar salary and donate it to job programs for inner city youth.
*If you are truly concerned about racism, violence, and poverty, take some time to work in places like Chicago, Baltimore, and New Orleans. Chicago makes a good start. There the black-on-black murder rate is horrific, having reached a casualty list of war-sized proportions. Buy yourself some unobtrusive body armor, hit the streets, talk to the people who live there, and give them a hand. Again, promote jobs.
*If you’re concerned about police violence, get off your laptops and go talk to some cops. See what they face every day on the job. And contrary to what you’ve learned in the classroom or online, being white does not make someone racist. Dig into the stats on police shootings. Look for real answers instead of listening to invective.
*Learn the history of your country. More than ever, the average American has become an ignoramus about his country’s past. Many have no sense of the struggles of those who came before them. Looking over the Swarthmore list of courses for spring, 2018, I can see such learning in US history might prove a challenge. If you can’t find a suitable course, try reading a couple of books on American history. Historical perspective may calm your fevered brains and give you hope for the future.
*Cut the drama. If you’re one of the two NFL players making the league’s base salary, congratulations! Your income is nearly eight times the median household income of $59,000. You players drawing the average NFL salary make more than 25 times that median income. And if you’re a student at Swarthmore, kudos to you too! You’re living the dream. Make the most of your academic years. You’re receiving an education whose cost annually exceeds the median household income.
Let me tell you what you apparently fail to recognize: your protests embarrass you. Your disdain for our past and our present not only marks you as ludicrous in the eyes of many, but also as frivolous. Those of us who live in less stellar circumstances, i.e. the vast majority of your fellow Americans, have no more respect for your humbuggery than we have for the promises of politicians or the moral admonitions of a sex-obsessed Hollywood.
Anyway, those are my suggestions. I doubt you’ll read my words. And if by chance someone else makes these same points, I doubt you’ll listen to them. Just know one thing: many of us, regardless of our political party, regardless of whether we live in Kansas City, Atlanta, Watts, or Cheyenne, find you ridiculous. We were angry, but now we’re just laughing at you.
And that, given your overweening moral rectitude, must surely sting.
Meanwhile, the average salary for players in the NFL is $1.9 million dollars a year. The league’s minimum base salary, paid this year to only two rookies, is $450,000.
Keeping these figures in mind, let’s delve a little deeper into the kneeling protest.
Kneeling during the National Anthem does incite controversy and drama, and in some cases might make for an effective protest. Unfortunately, no one knows exactly why these players are kneeling. Many of us watching the kneelers see a group of privileged young people engaging in an exercise of smug self-satisfaction, copycatting others who initiated the same exercise. “Look at me,” the players seem to say to the rest of us. “I’m good, America is wicked, and if you aren’t kneeling, you are wicked too.”
It’s farcical. If we still had a sense of humor in this country, we’d laugh these people off the playing fields and gymnasium courts.
But since laughter is verboten toward the PC crowd, let’s play a game instead. Let’s pretend the players are protesting racism, particularly by the police.
Okay. So next let’s pretend those who kneel are interested in genuine change rather than in merely putting on a show of self-righteousness. Let’s say they really want to alleviate poverty and racism.
Here are some suggestions for them.
*Find a worthy cause, tithe your money, and support that cause. Take 10 percent of your 1.9 million dollar salary and donate it to job programs for inner city youth.
*If you are truly concerned about racism, violence, and poverty, take some time to work in places like Chicago, Baltimore, and New Orleans. Chicago makes a good start. There the black-on-black murder rate is horrific, having reached a casualty list of war-sized proportions. Buy yourself some unobtrusive body armor, hit the streets, talk to the people who live there, and give them a hand. Again, promote jobs.
*If you’re concerned about police violence, get off your laptops and go talk to some cops. See what they face every day on the job. And contrary to what you’ve learned in the classroom or online, being white does not make someone racist. Dig into the stats on police shootings. Look for real answers instead of listening to invective.
*Learn the history of your country. More than ever, the average American has become an ignoramus about his country’s past. Many have no sense of the struggles of those who came before them. Looking over the Swarthmore list of courses for spring, 2018, I can see such learning in US history might prove a challenge. If you can’t find a suitable course, try reading a couple of books on American history. Historical perspective may calm your fevered brains and give you hope for the future.
*Cut the drama. If you’re one of the two NFL players making the league’s base salary, congratulations! Your income is nearly eight times the median household income of $59,000. You players drawing the average NFL salary make more than 25 times that median income. And if you’re a student at Swarthmore, kudos to you too! You’re living the dream. Make the most of your academic years. You’re receiving an education whose cost annually exceeds the median household income.
Let me tell you what you apparently fail to recognize: your protests embarrass you. Your disdain for our past and our present not only marks you as ludicrous in the eyes of many, but also as frivolous. Those of us who live in less stellar circumstances, i.e. the vast majority of your fellow Americans, have no more respect for your humbuggery than we have for the promises of politicians or the moral admonitions of a sex-obsessed Hollywood.
Anyway, those are my suggestions. I doubt you’ll read my words. And if by chance someone else makes these same points, I doubt you’ll listen to them. Just know one thing: many of us, regardless of our political party, regardless of whether we live in Kansas City, Atlanta, Watts, or Cheyenne, find you ridiculous. We were angry, but now we’re just laughing at you.
And that, given your overweening moral rectitude, must surely sting.