Mary Franta, San Clemente
Last week’s San Clemente Times featured a few letters with misguided opinions regarding the NFL and their kneeling during our national anthem. Everyone gets to have an opinion in this great nation of ours, and in the interest of being fair, I must represent the opposing view.
Not everyone agrees with these football players, as they kneel during our anthem. True Americans do not wish to see them disrespect our flag because it is our national symbol of those brave men and women who fought, bled and died for our freedom. Kneeling is disrespectful to our military, our police and our nation. I take deep offense to those who kneel, and I refuse to support the NFL any longer.
The excuse that these kneeling players give for kneeling is that they say there is unfair treatment of minorities by police. By kneeling, do these players think that their actions will make the world any safer, stop police brutality or racial inequality? I would be willing to bet that most of the kneelers have not spent one hour or one dime to study these problems and/or provide any sort of remedy to this problem. It’s all vainglory; cry me a river when I visit these players in their $20 million homes. They live in the bubble of their own closed-off world of wealth and fame.
The time to show respect for our nation is during the 90 seconds it takes to stand and place one’s hand over one’s heart to demonstrate gratitude and honor for those who give everything they have for our freedom.
Like any private business in the free world, the NFL can limit what players say or do during working hours. These players are wearing the company uniform and act as role models for our youth. There is no acceptable excuse for disrespecting our flag during the anthem, and I say that it’s high time to stop kneeling, stand up like men, and get back to business, which is get back to playing football.
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