September 7, 2016 TIME: Early afternoon LOCATION: Segregation Housing Unit, Ross Correctional, Chilicothe, OH
I recently received the latest Writer’s Market book, which has a section of tips for people that write blogs. Upon reading it, I learned that I need to use catchy titles about the things I’m writing about, that is, so that i can improve my standings on various search engines. With this being said, I’m incorporating this suggestion into the below continuation of this post, which is something about the recent protests of the NFL’s quarterback Colin Kaepernick. But, before I get to that, I just want to send my regards to all people involved in the Free Ohio Movement (freeohiomovement.org) and the September 9th protest against Ohio’s system of modern-day slavery.
A smile of approval appeared on my face, last week, when I read about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the singing of the U.S. national anthem, due to his discontent with the way African-Americans are being Jim Crowed and killed by America’s racist criminal justice system. “It’s about time,” I said to myself as I began reading. But then I got pissed-off when I read about a comment that an ultra-patriotic Detroit Tigers baseball player made against Kaepernick’s protest. Tigers pitcher Jarrod Sallalamacchia said Kaepernick “needs to go back to the history books and realize what that flag represents,” and that Kaepernick’s protest was “pretty disgusting.”
Disgusting? no, what’s disgusting is when ultra-patriotic people pretend to be outraged at courageous people who aren’t afraid to speak the truth about the present–or past–state of this country. Ultra-patriotic people like the Tigers baseball player are always so quick to twist around a spoken truth about the existence of racism in this country, and make it out to be some kind of verbal attack on the over-romanticized historic founding of this country. Somebody should remind all of the ultra-patriotic people of this country that the same flag flying today, as African-Americans are being gunned down in the streets by so-called law enforcement, is the same flag that was flying during the times when the U.S.was savagely killing Native Americans for their land, and when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves that they routinely sexually assaulted, and when the U.S. military gunned down the entire village of MyLai during the Vietnam war. And let’s not forget that thousands of these very same Vietnam veterans, as well as countless other everyday citizens, participated in massive protests against the Vietnam war, and even set U.S. flags ablaze.
Colin Kaepernick’s stance against injustice deserves praise, not condemnation. His willingness to use his platform as a professional athlete proves that he won’t allow his morals to be compromised by control-seeking corporate America. And if Kaepernick’s protesting is wrong, then so were the historic stances of Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali. And the last I heard, MLK has a monument in Washington, D.C. and Ali, well … he’s known all over the world as The Greatest!
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