Why are football players kneeling?

The rules in question state they "must be on the sidelines" and the Anthem "must" be played. None have violated that "must". Well, except those players refusing to leave the locker room in protest. Meanwhile, the rest of the rules state they "should" or "may". They "should" stand. Those are not rules, they are options. In any case, it is the choice of the NFL to enforce the rule on fines...or not.

 

Well said.

 

Indeed but it's normally considered bad form to use your employment as a forum to express ideas that your employer has stated are antithetical to their best interest. If you are going to have rules you should enforce them otherwise why have them?

 

The British national anthem is 'God Save the Queen'. As I am an atheist and anti royalist, it would be hypocritical for me to stand. What does the Union Jack symbolise? The Union of the kingdoms of Scotland, Ireland and England. Wales is not even represented as it was regarded as a backwater of England. The flag was flying during the British Empire with the Clearances, Potato Famine suffered by their own citizens and slavery, native suppression and outright robbery in the colonies. You may well ask why I live here. I have yet to find a country, tribe or clan that does not have a shameful history and have accepted that this has been the case since humans have inhabited the earth. Flags and anthems are transient symbols that are used for political purposes.
One thing I do regret is not asking my father if he felt he was fighting in WW2 for King and Country, to protect his family or because he had no choice.

 

I do not sing it as I do not want anyone to rule over me.

KTK

 

IMO there are quite a few countries that have histories that can hardly be categorized as shameful. If, especially over the years, the people of a country build something better it is not IMO shameful. It may not be ideal but that's another matter and may not even be possible. Shameful is when you take something that is at least passible and devolve it.

 

I really dislike all this 'White Shaming' that is going on. Now, I understand the removal of Confederate Flags and Statues (which were clearly erected for racist reasons if you look at the time period most were put up during) especially in regards to (what to me is mystifying) the fact that the Confederates LOST the civil war and I can not think of any other country that honors the losing side of such a matter (at least, with statues and state flags etc).

But...the cry to remove Columbus Day/Statues, that gynecologist in NYC, etc....based on the reasons people are using to remove them etc, well, not a single statue of a single person should ever be erected. Hey, that George Washington guy...he was a slave owner...lets remove him from the dollar bill! It feels very much that the minorities and snowflakes are trying to shame our history and past and blame us for it. Which is very ironic if you think about it, because without those people and that past, you wouldn't have a country like the United States, or a country where you can protest the anthem and have free speech etc.

The whole PC thing is getting rather absurd these days.

 

I can understand why some want them removed. I disagree that they were "clearly erected for racist reasons". That may have been a contributing factor in some cases but I doubt it was the dominant factor in most cases and probably had little play in quite a few.

Look a bit into the various Celtic cultures the Scotts, Irish, and Welsh all have celebrated the losing side to great length. Indeed their are likely more songs about the former twos battles with the English by a fair margin if compared to the ACW. Which may lead into something as Scottish and Irish ancestry was common in the Confederate stats.

 

The Celts are different peoples and cultures than the people they lost to, and they all still exist as Countries. There is no 'Confederate States' within the United States at the present time and the ACW split families and people of the same or similar backgrounds, as opposed to people of different cultures and countries, so there is quite a bit of difference. I don't listen to country music so I can't say I've ever heard a Confederate song, while I have heard plenty of Irish Rebel music. As we saw with the Scottish Vote on Independence, those 'conflicts' still linger to a degree.

 

Then you really have no frame of reference, do you?

 

I'm curious to know what the reaction would be to the brown skinned Jesus (not the newly white washed one) if he managed to get through immigration and took a notion to attend a game. Would he be tolerated pulling down the flag and berating the crowd for worshiping false idols as per Gods commandment or would he be lynched by the crowd for being 'of colour'?

 

??? False idols? Lynched for "being 'of colour;"? That's so far off in fantasy land it hardly deserves a response. In any case he probably couldn't get to the flag. Probable response would be security taking him to a nice padded cell to wait for the men in white coats.

 

Hee hee, that's the response I thought my philosophical question might get. Just after I'd finished posting it I thought of David Ike and how a returned Jesus would unlikely be believed these days.

 

Mutley, get to your room. You are grounded for inciting ridiculous behaviour

 

Och, couldnae help myself, just the atheist in me. Just glad I belong to a country that's seeing the back of all this baloney. Think the last census return had only 40% of the population who classed themselves as belonging to any religion. Wholeheartedly agree with you on the flag also. Hope to live long enough to see the back of both issues.

 

Well said Otto. I agree with you the US is a great nation and I am proud to have the American people as friends and nieghbours.

KTK

 

They may be great people (and they are) - but they sure cant choose a good president. A leadership vacuum is developing from the "leader of the free world" - Just what China and Russia would like to see and not surprisingly have featured in the news FAR more since Trump's election...

 

Hopefully Hillary will move to Australia and run for PM.

 

She will have to give up her US citizenship...not allowed even dual citizenship in Australian politics...allegiance to Australia only. Her accent would doom her...Nasty 58!
We'd take an Obama though, any spares?
(never talk about religion or politics) - Just broke that rule, and getting what I deserve...