(08-24-2017, 10:57 PM)Vlad Wrote: With only two words you've made your feelings toward the flag quite clear, rendering the rest of your post meaningless.
The flag is an object. It is a thing. Just because someone doesn't engage in the hypernationalist idolatry of the flag of this country doesn't mean their opinion is meaningless.
(08-24-2017, 08:00 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Agreed. I feel as though your zeal for freedom isn't really tested until you have to grit your teeth and accept people's rights to do something you can't stand. My issue with the "respect the flag" mantra isn't the sentiment itself, but the possibility that we believe people fought and died for "the flag" more than the other aspects of this country.
My cynical side sees this move towards elevating the flag as a symbol above all else as a tactic to minimize the concept that people fought and died for freedoms the government is trying to oppress (with lots of support, in many cases), the actual air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil upon which we live and so on and so forth. Not only is it NOT an insult to veterans when we rape the very land we claim to love, many patriots cheer the removal of the laws that protect it.
It just leads me to thinking that certain political entities want us to respect the flag above all else because then they can salute the hell out of that thing while they compromise the freedoms and the land people fought and died defending. I'm not accusing the "Stand up while the anthem plays or get out of my country" types, so much as I feel like they are missing the bigger picture.
Again, we each have our own lives and experiences. My ol man was a hippie veteran and my best pal is an ultra-liberal black major in the army. Both of them had a list of stories where armchair patriots had no qualms telling them what REALLY happened "over there" and why the narrative the media sells us is the right one and blah blah blah. Meh, I just feel like saying they fought for "the flag" opens to door to minimization of what they really fought for. Well, my ol' man was in Nam so he just fought for his damn life, I guess.
(08-24-2017, 10:57 PM)Vlad Wrote: With only two words you've made your feelings toward the flag quite clear, rendering the rest of your post meaningless.
Yeah, man. You made perhaps the most coherent and thought-provoking post in this entire abortion of a thread, but since you didn't express your love for the American flag by indirectly describing how big of an erection it gives you, your post is now meaningless.
Next time you address the flag, make sure to call old glory by a more appropriate name as to not ruffle the feathers of some of the more sensitive posters here.
(08-24-2017, 10:57 PM)Vlad Wrote: With only two words you've made your feelings toward the flag quite clear, rendering the rest of your post meaningless.
Awesome. Now we have elevated slut shaming to flag shaming.
I'm curious what you have done in your life to make you a Super Patriot compared to the rest of us whose opinions are meaningless?
(08-25-2017, 09:16 AM)Johnny Cupcakes Wrote: Yeah, man. You made perhaps the most coherent and thought-provoking post in this entire abortion of a thread, but since you didn't express your love for the American flag by indirectly describing how big of an erection it gives you, your post is now meaningless.
Next time you address the flag, make sure to call old glory by a more appropriate name as to not ruffle the feathers of some of the more sensitive posters here.
Again thousands of people are pissing during the anthem, talking at the concessions stands, still wearing hats, checking their phones. Are those people protesting too?
(08-25-2017, 09:44 AM)Au165 Wrote: Again thousands of people are pissing during the anthem, talking at the concessions stands, still wearing hats, checking their phones. Are those people protesting too?
(08-25-2017, 08:57 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: The flag is an object. It is a thing. Just because someone doesn't engage in the hypernationalist idolatry of the flag of this country doesn't mean their opinion is meaningless.
I just happen to view the concept of patriotism as a more nuanced and detailed thing than he does, so it goes. Ironically, I have always stood during the National Anthem (in addition to singing it a zillion times due to that high school and college choir thing) so by his metric he shouldn't have probable cause to even question my patriotism. Fun fact, a right-wing co-worker once got irked at me for admitting that O, Canada was superior musically to our own anthem. Er, I guess that's not allowed, either. Pardon me!
I'm so into freedom that I support his right to think I'm anti-American even though I choose to work a national defense-related job for which I am massively over-qualified 50+ hours a week and blah blah blah.
Quote:Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown, who has long been a civil rights activist and involved in public service, said he wouldn't "desecrate my flag and my national anthem," as he talked about quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee last season during the national anthem.
"I want to be in his corner, and I do think, 'God bless him,'" Brown said in an interview with ThePostGame. "I'm going to give you the real deal: I'm an American. I don't desecrate my flag and my national anthem. I'm not gonna do anything against the flag and national anthem. I'm going to work within those situations. But this is my country, and I'll work out the problems, but I'll do it in an intelligent manner."
Brown said Kaepernick needed to get others to join him.
"If you have a cause, I think you should organize it, present it in a manner where it's not only you standing or sitting on one knee but a lot of people that is gonna get behind each other and do something about it," Brown said. "If I ask you one question: Who is Colin calling on to follow what he's talking about?"
Brown says that when Kaepernick commits to playing, he needs to focus on being an athlete.
"Colin has to make up his mind whether he's truly an activist or he's a football player," Brown said. "Football is commercial. You have owners. You have fans. And you want to honor that if you're making that kind of money. ...
"You have to understand there's intelligence that's involved, OK? I can't be two things at once that contradict each other. If I sign for money, then the people I sign with, they have rules and regulations."
(08-25-2017, 08:57 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: The flag is an object. It is a thing. Just because someone doesn't engage in the hypernationalist idolatry of the flag of this country doesn't mean their opinion is meaningless.
For me it does. And just because "that thing" was all I needed to hear doesn't mean I engage in "hypernationalistic idolatry of the flag".
You folks waste no time jumping to inane conclusions.
That picture of your mom (or someone you love ) also is a thing, made of photographic material and paper.
You aren't honoring, loving, or idolizing the paper.
Get it?
Back to your "Hypernationalism" ? Confederate monuments are also things. So the unlawful destruction must be "Hyperleftism?
(08-27-2017, 05:58 PM)Vlad Wrote: For me it does. And just because "that thing" was all I needed to hear doesn't mean I engage in "hypernationalistic idolatry of the flag".
You folks waste no time jumping to inane conclusions.
That picture of your mom (or someone you love ) also is a thing, made of photographic material and paper.
You aren't honoring, loving, or idolizing the paper.
Get it?
Back to your "Hypernationalism" ? Confederate monuments are also things. So the unlawful destruction must be "Hyperleftism?
If someone considers the flag to be more than a thing, than yeah, I would consider that hypernationalist idolatry. That picture, or any picture, is just a thing.
As for the last bit, that's just called being a criminal.
Quote:Michael Bennett's police incident illustrates reason for protests
I didn’t need to see the video to believe Michael Bennett.
In a heartfelt letter posted on Twitter on Wednesday, the Seattle Seahawks’ star defensive end revealed the details of a recent encounter with police in Las Vegas – just harrowing stuff – that is all-too-common for African-American males in America.
A police officer put a gun to Bennett’s head, according to the football player I have no reason not to believe, and threatened to blow “my (expletive) head off.”
A second officer came over and “forcefully jammed his knee into my back,” Bennett wrote, “making it difficult for me to breathe.”
Disgusting.
Bennett was subjected to such apparent abuse amid the chaos that ensued with reports of a shooting on the Las Vegas strip in the aftermath of the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight on Aug. 26.
It’s a striking coincidence that of all the NFL players to find himself in such a predicament, it’s Bennett, who has long been outspoken about racial issues and supportive to so many causes.
Truth is, it could have been just about any African-American NFL player – or any African-American male from any walk of life – regardless of status.
“The conversation isn’t about this one particular incident, but coming to accept that there are prejudices,” former NFL defensive back Domonique Foxworth, now a senior writer for The Undefeated, told USA TODAY Sports. “That sounds super remedial, but that’s the conversation we need to have.”
In other words, the same types of conversations about race that have been relevant for generations still apply in 2017.
In a world of racial profiling, systematic inequalities and extreme prejudice by too many people who are sworn to serve and protect, such disrespectful treatment of people of color by law enforcement sometimes is a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Now Bennett, among a handful of players who have kept the spirit of Colin Kaepernick's protests alive in the NFL by refusing to stand for the national anthem, is alleging police misconduct as he weighs a potential lawsuit for the violation of his civil rights. After being detained, he was ultimately released.
Of course, there were no charges.
It’s a good thing it wasn’t any worse, that Bennett wasn’t injured or killed by some nervous, biased officer who might justify cruel actions by contending he feared for his life – which we’ve heard as a defense repeatedly in explaining what happened to unarmed victims.
More: Pete Carroll says Michael Bennett police incident an example of 'reality of inequality'
Yet unfortunately, Bennett’s episode illustrates exactly why Kaepernick – fed up with police killings of unarmed African-American men – launched his protest.
Too many people have twisted the reason for the national anthem protests, interpreting them as a slight on the American flag or the military. It was always about police brutality, systematic injustices and oppression.
As Bennett expressed in his one-word intro to the post of his letter on Twitter: “Equality.”
On a video released by TMZ that showed only a portion of the episode, Bennett can be seen and heard pleading with the officer as he is being handcuffed – while the officer rudely barks. At one point, Bennett even calls the officer “sir.”
“Don’t try to remediate your civil rights until later,” civil rights attorney John Burris, whom Bennett has retained, told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday. “Not on the street. You’d be killed.”
It’s a shame that Burris has to be so blunt.
Then again, contrast the Bennett video to the police dash cam footage that surfaced recently showing a Cobb County, Ga., officer, Lt. Greg Abbott, comforting a nervous white woman who had been pulled over and expressed her fear. “But you’re not black. Remember, we only kill black people,” Abbott said.
In the wake of the furor, Abbott retired – with full benefits.
A Las Vegas police undersheriff, meanwhile, said that there was "no evidence race played any role" in Bennett's incident. But the officer who apprehended Bennett did not have his body camera on.
“What happened with Michael is a classic illustration of the reality of inequalities that are demonstrated daily,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said in a statement Wednesday.
Bennett has a strong mind, but even with that, there is emotional distress. In his letter, he wrote about the fears of losing his life, and leaving his wife and two daughters without him.
Green Bay Packers tight end Martellus Bennett wrote on Instagram about the disturbing phone call that he received from his brother after the incident and how it left him “in one of the saddest places ever.”
There are undoubtedly many people in this nation who can’t relate to what Bennett experienced, because they choose not to understand, are naïve to the extent that they can’t believe it or have some other factors shaping their world views.
Carroll said that he hopes the incident inspires people to respond with compassion.
“We can do better,” he said.
We should do better. And not just because a high-profile football player was subjected to such apparent abuse.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
Anthem Protest Bengals
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