Day 127 of Nat'l Emergency: Acting American

Making the rounds of Facebook is a tableau of four pictures of the American flag: 

A woman caresses a flag draped coffin. The caption reads: “This is why you don’t step on the flag;” 

A wheelchaired black veteran sits before a flag. The caption: “This is why you stand for the national anthem;”

A military tombstone with a small American flag in the grass beside it. The caption: “This is why we don’t erase history;” 

An American flag with the following saying: “You’re not a Black, White, Yellow, Brown. You’re an American. Start acting like it.”

The tableau is an unmistakeable call for patriotism and respect for the flag. It challenges the idea that protest for racial equality and against police brutality is justified. Protest is unAmerican. All that is required to be a good person is to “act American.”

What the tableau does not address is the everyday actions people of color confront in our country.

When Mr. Black applies for a job he is qualified for, does Mr. White look past his skin color to his qualifications? History tells us, not likely.

When Mr. and Mrs. Yellow apply for a lease on an apartment in an upper middle class neighborhood, does Landlord White rent them the unit? History tells us, not likely.

When Mr. Brown walks down a street at night wearing a hoodie, will he be safe from police? History tells us, not likely.

When Mr. White walks down a street at night wearing a hoodie, or applies for a job or an apartment rental, will he be safe from police harassment, be evaluated for the new job and be considered for a lease? History tells us, most probably.

Ignoring these realities is not in itself a sign of bigotry any more than not standing for the national anthem is a sign of disrespect for the country or a lack of patriotism. 

This country was founded on the belief that protest by speech, writing and peaceful assembly is lawful. In other words, it is patriotic, it is American, to seek redress of grievances and inequality.

It is unAmerican to deny a qualified applicant a job or housing because of race, religion, national creed or sexual orientation. Yet, for hundreds of years, even to this day, White Americans discriminate against people of color and because of their sex.

Systemic racism permeates police departments. 

The question is, when will all of White America realize their past and present so that All Americans may have an equal future?

Point/Counterpoint of NFL Flag Protests

I had been meaning to write about the NFL player protests during the national anthem when a friend sent an email about a proposed fan boycott for the November 11 games. What follows are point/counterpoint, his note and my response: 

Point: You graduated high school in 2011. Your teenage years were a struggle. You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Your mother was the leader of the family and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate. Academics were a struggle for you and your grades were mediocre at best. The only thing that made you stand out is you weighed 225 lbs. and could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds while carrying a football.  

Your best friend was just like you, except he didn’t play football. Instead of going to football practice after school, he went to work at McDonald’s for minimum wage. You were recruited by all the big colleges and spent every weekend of your senior year making visits to universities where coaches and boosters tried to convince you their school was best. They laid out the red carpet for you. 

Your best friend worked double shifts at Mickey D’s.  College was not an option for him. On the day you signed with Big State University, your best friend signed paperwork with his Army recruiter.  You went to summer workouts.  He went to basic training.

You spent the next four years living in the athletic dorm, eating at the training table. You spent your Saturdays on the football field, cheered on by adoring fans. Tutors attended to your every academic need. You attended class when you felt like it. Sure, you worked hard. You lifted weights, ran sprints, studied plays, and soon became one of the top football players in the country.  

Your best friend was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. While you were in college, he deployed to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice. He became a sergeant and led a squad of 19-year-old soldiers who grew up just like he did. He shed his blood in Afghanistan and watched young Americans give their lives, limbs, and innocence for the USA.

You went to the NFL combine and scored off the charts.  You hired an agent and waited for draft day. You were drafted in the first round and your agent immediately went to work, ensuring that you received the most money possible. You signed for $16 million although you had never played a single down of professional football. Your best friend re-enlisted in the Army for four more years. As a combat tested sergeant, he will be paid $32,000 per year.

You will drive a Ferrari on the streets of South Beach. He will ride in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter with 10 other combat-loaded soldiers. You will sleep at the Ritz.  He will dig a hole in the ground and try to sleep. You will “make it rain” in the club. He will pray for rain as the temperature reaches 120 degrees.

On Sunday, you will run into a stadium as tens of thousands of fans cheer and yell your name. For your best friend, there is little difference between Sunday and any other day of the week. There are no adoring fans. There are only people trying to kill him and his soldiers. Every now and then, he and his soldiers leave the front lines and “go to the rear” to rest. He might be lucky enough to catch an NFL game on TV. When the National Anthem plays and you take a knee, he will jump to his feet and salute the television. While you protest the unfairness of life in the United States, he will give thanks to God that he has the honor of defending his great country.

To the players of the NFL: We are the people who buy your tickets, watch you on TV, and wear your jerseys. We anxiously wait for Sundays so we can cheer for you and marvel at your athleticism. Although we love to watch you play, we care little about your opinions until you offend us. You have the absolute right to express yourselves, but we have the absolute right to boycott you.  

We have tolerated your drug use and DUIs, your domestic violence, and your vulgar displays of wealth. We should be ashamed for putting our admiration of your physical skills before what is morally right. But now you have gone too far. You have insulted our flag, our country, our soldiers, our police officers, and our veterans. You are living the American dream, yet you disparage our great country.  I encourage all like minded Americans to boycott the NFL.

National boycott of the NFL for Sunday, November 11th, Veterans’ Day Weekend. Boycott all football telecast, all fans, all ticket holders, stay away from attending any games, let them play to empty stadiums. Pass this post along to all your friends and family. Honor our military, some of whom come home with the American Flag draped over their coffin.

Counterpoint: I can understand and appreciate the anger, resentment, disappointment many feel toward the players who have taken the very public protest of kneeling or some other gesture during the playing of the national anthem. You feel they are dissing the military, police, veterans, our country as represented by our flag.

When that black soldier returns home from combat and is walking around in civilian clothes, is it fair that police will treat him differently than they do white men and women? Blacks have fought in every war, from the Revolution to the Civil War, to the Indian wars to the Spanish American War to the First World War, the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each time they thought they were fighting for freedom and for their country. They thought that by doing so they would be treated as equals once they returned home. 

You know they haven’t. You know they were discriminated in housing, in employment, in voting rights, in education. And now, thanks to cellphone cameras and police bodycams, we are finding out that the decades long complaint of unjustified police brutality, even killings, are not figments of a minority’s imagination but rather plain facts that are “justified” by police and politicians. Police are shooting black men who are not endangering them, who are not facing them, who are running away from them, unarmed. Police are stopping black drivers for petty violations far more than they do white drivers. Police are arresting black men for drug possession, especially marijuana, while turning a blind eye toward white people’s use of drugs. Once incarcerated a person’s potential is stifled. It is no wonder blacks are disadvantaged.

It is a privilege to play in the NFL. But consider this: as the players make their way up the ladder of pro-opportunity, how much do they truly benefit from their college programs compared to the colleges themselves? Do you not find it repulsive that the highest paid “public servant” in many a state is the head coach of the state university’s football team? 

And once they are professionals, do you not find it disingenuous that the NFL for years disavowed any correlation between playing football and degenerative brain injuries? Keep in mind that the league is predominantly populated by black players in the positions that most often have their heads battered. Any latent racism there? 

What surprises me about the player protest is how few of them actually protest and that protests have not taken hold in other leagues where blacks and Hispanics have large representation. Perhaps it is an economic consideration. After all, a pro athlete’s career ends in a manner of years, not decades, like yours or mine did. They have to maximize their income when they can. 

Instead of fans boycotting a game to show their displeasure, I wonder what would be the reaction if players boycotted a game in response to the latest police shooting of an unarmed, innocent black man. Don’t the gladiators in our sports arenas deserve to be fighting for some dignity for their fellow citizens? 

I support any American’s right to express their views on their government and the officials elected to guard our constitutional rights. I am against anyone’s politicalization of constitutional rights. Colin Kaepernick did not start his protest to overthrow the government or to express displeasure with any specific elected official. He simply wanted accountability for police actions against black people. For his “uppityness” he has been economically punished. He never lived up to his athletic potential, but compared to some of the jokers masquerading as NFL-level first string and back-up quarterbacks he more than qualifies. Yet he remains a pariah. 

Kaepernick and his compatriots kneel during the anthem not because they want to protest the military or denigrate the flag. Their actions are far less degrading than people who wear the flag as bikinis, or as part of their jeans or hug the flag as a symbol of their allegiance but hid behind suspect injury deferments to evade service in the military. 

Think about this: Using your illustration of two young men, Kaepernick et al probably know more men and women who joined the military than most Americans because the military was one of the few employment options that provided a way out of the ghetto. The fortunate ones returned from their tours of duty intact in body, mind and spirit. But they still had to confront a most dangerous threat to their lives—police quick to react and, many times, shoot to kill. 

PS: If those who want to follow through on a November 11 boycott want to do something truly meaningful, they should donate their tickets to inner city youth clubs so disadvantaged kids can get to do what only mostly white men can every weekend—attend an NFL game!

Rumbles From Above, Superman's an Illegal Alien, Native Americans are Immigrants too, Oprah Rejects God's Entreaty

Few things are more disconcerting than hearing a rumbling sound during a snowstorm that shakes the very foundation of your house. Not once but at least six times in the space of 90 minutes the house shook Wednesday afternoon as snow from the upper reaches of our home tumbled down to a lower roof level.

Each rumble transported me back in time, more than three decades ago, when I first heard a similarly unnerving cascade that defied my comprehension. 

Back then Gilda and I, and our infant son Dan, lived in a Tudor style house with a slate roof. After an especially deep snow fall, we were getting ready for bed when the rumbling started, lasting about six seconds. I thought someone had rolled up the garage door and was breaking into our home.

I yelled to Gilda to call the police as I threw on a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt and sneakers, grabbed a baseball bat from the closet and raced outdoors to confront the intruder. 

Outside I saw the garage door had not been opened. I spotted a pile of snow on an otherwise smooth blanket of snow. I looked to the roof and realized the snow had rumbled down the slate. I felt foolish.

But not as concerned as Gilda felt. The police had cautioned her I should not be outside lest they suspect I was the suspected burglar, armed as I was, with a bat. The patrol car arrived just as Gilda opened the front door and screamed for me to get inside.

Not so fast. After due process, the police let me go with an admonition never again to play the brave fool. 

Oscars Followup: Superman was mentioned during the Oscars telecast which got me thinking that despite all the good the caped crusader has performed since 1933, Donald Trump’s Homeland Security authorities would eject him from the United States. 

He is, after all, an undocumented alien. His parents transported him from Krypton to America while still a baby, but he’s too old to be a Dreamer, so he would not be shielded from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). They couldn’t send him back to Krypton as it imploded. They’d have to find a country willing to take someone who “fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way,” not traits readily identified with Trump’s United States. 

Natives, Really? In most conversations, oral and written, about immigrants, legal and illegal, it often is stated that only Native Americans—Indians—did not emigrate to America. 

Oh, really? Let’s be clear: the first settlers of America were immigrants from an as yet undetermined land or lands. Numerous theories abound https://www.voanews.com/a/native-americans-call-for-rethink-of-bering-strait-theory/3901792.html.

Bottom line: Everyone in America is descendant from an immigrant. 

God Couldn’t Talk Her into It: Even an appearance by God on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert couldn’t convince Oprah Winfrey to launch a campaign for the presidency in 2020. The tete-a-tete between titans produced laughs and some real longing by those seeking a cultural change in the White House (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkUKRkN-nTY).

Oprah’s progressive positions are well documented, but she is correct in distancing herself from a political future. She need only gaze at the shattered legacy of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) to visualize what her future would be. On Wednesday, a 2012 human rights award she received from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was revoked because of the ongoing mistreatment and massacre of Rohingya Muslims during her reign as Myanmar’s state counsellor (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-holocaust-museum-aung-san-suu-kyi_us_5aa022f4e4b0d4f5b66cd500). 

The minute Oprah equivocated on any tenet of progressivism she would be criticized by leftist radicals no less sharply than by conservatives who would be merciless in their everyday abuse. 

Americans do not want their icons tarnished by real world politics. Since politics is supposed to include the art of compromise, Winfrey could not be expected to deliver on all items on her constituents’ wish list. She is better off leaving politics to the politicians while championing causes and rallying voters.  

A Sense of Higher Purpose

Among the most e-mailed recent articles listed by The NY Times was a piece on Apple’s store employees titled, “Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay” ( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/apple-store-workers-loyal-but-short-on-pay.html?_r=1). 

As someone who covered retailing for more than three decades, I learned very little from the extensive reporting. It was not news to me that Apple, like most retailers, pays its store staff little more than minimum wage despite counting on them to rack up among the highest, if not the highest, sales per square foot among chain store retailers. 

Buried deep in the article was the following paragraph which explains to a large degree why Apple can get away with low hourly wages: “The phrase that trainees hear time and again, which echoes once they arrive at the stores, is ‘enriching people’s lives.’ The idea is to instill in employees the notion that they are doing something far grander than just selling or fixing products. If there is a secret to Apple’s sauce, this is it: the company ennobles employees. It understands that a lot of people will forgo money if they have a sense of higher purpose.”

That last sentence—”It understands that a lot of people will forgo money if they have a sense of higher purpose”—really got me. It brought me back several decades to a presentation by then CEO and founder of Crate & Barrel Gordon Segal. Asked by a Wall Street investment analyst to explain the success of his home furnishings chain, Segal attributed much of it to the dedication of store associates, men and women often with a degree in art or design or teaching. They had a talent for connecting with people and for feeling good about their work. That transcendent feeling, Segal said, allowed Crate & Barrel to keep salaries low because the staff received inner fulfillment from their work in lieu of demanding higher wages.

That’s the same management philosophy that for years buttressed the belief that public employees—firemen, police, social workers, sanitation workers, teachers, nurses, even the military—could be hired at low starting salaries. The tradeoff many of these workers, and government officials, accepted was better health care and retirement benefits. Now slash and burn governors, mayors and their legislative henchmen are trying to balance the books on the backs of government workers. 

Sure, there were and are some malingerers among them. What industry doesn’t have its share of goof-offs and people who take advantage of the system? But do we seriously believe teachers are not among the most important members of society and thus should be valued and paid appropriately? Does anyone seriously want to haul trash—even if it’s just their own trash— in the frigid dead of winter or the blazing hot summer? How about running into a burning building to save someone who might not even be inside the inferno, but firemen go in anyway because a family member or friend suspects a loved one is inside? How many of us are ready and willing to put our lives on the line each time we don a uniform to protect our cities or to safeguard our nation from attack in foreign lands? 

Perhaps what we need is a little more introspection about the good government workers bring to our standard of living.