Some Broncos players claimed they were kneeling “in unity”, but pictures show otherwise. The major questions are: Can you cause unity by division, and can you demand respect by being disrespectful?
Many NFL players reacted negatively to President Donald Trump’s declaration that they should be fired for kneeling during the national anthem. They claimed he was intruding upon their right to free speech. Ironically, they seem to forget that the president also has a right to free speech, and it is obvious to all that he was expressing his opinion just as much as they were. However, there are some major differences, and people want to conveniently forget the facts.
A couple of days ago, the Broncos put out a statement that they will no longer kneel during the national anthem but stand. Many claimed they were kneeling “in unity”. In unity with whom? Not everyone kneeled, after all, so where’s the unity? Some were interviewed and dismayed at the lack of respect for showing their point of view. Seriously? You disrespect the symbol of our nation, and then you hypocritically want respect for your disrespect?
Leading up to this were a lot, and I mean a lot, of people who wanted money back for their TV subscriptions, burning jerseys on YouTube and season pass owners saying this was the last season pass they would buy. It wasn’t just the Broncos, either, but at least someone in Denver woke up to the fact that NFL viewings are declining overall, and this threatened to make them plunge.
Speaking of respect, people want to whitewash the origins of it all.
Colin Kaepernick started protesting police brutality and the inequality that people of color in the United States face in August of 2016. He did so by initially sitting for the national anthem and then altering his demonstration to take a knee.
~ Sbnation, “NFL protests 2017: What are players protesting when kneeling for the national anthem?“
Now, I’m not about to argue that racism doesn’t exist in this country. I am not about to argue that there aren’t bad cops, either. I don’t have my head in the sand. However, most of the protests (many violent, I should point out) have tarnished perfectly good officers doing their jobs and have been proven innocent.
I realize that I won’t change anyone’s mind. It reminds me of the Cleveland mother on TV shedding tears crying out, “He couldn’t have killed anyone because I love him“, as though one really had anything to do with the other. So, no, I don’t care how many mothers of how many thugs stand before the cameras in tears because their sons were criminals who got what they deserved.
Basically, law and order don’t mean anything any more. Facts don’t mean anything any more. We are a society that does not need virtual reality because too many are already engaged in some alternate dream world.
Disrespect won’t bring about respect. Division will not bring about unity.
However, today is the Day of Atonement. Atonement means reconciliation, usually through making wrongs right. We humans are too wounded and too biased ourselves to do this. It will take the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Atonement will bring about unity. Oneness with God and man will finally be achieved. One definition of atonement I am particularly fond of:
Christian Science :the exemplifying of human oneness with God
There will be no racial bias, for we will all serve the same King. There will be no police brutality, for there will be no crime requiring it. There will at last be unity and not division. People will respect one another instead of expecting respect to be a one-way street.
The world at last will be ready for true peace.