This was sent to me by a good friend and it is so well written and strikes the same chord as my thoughts were when I received it that it became imperative for me to add it to my blog. For the life of me I can’t understand why our great athletes don’t understand their positions as role models for all the youth of our great country? This is an automatic responsibility when they achieve the greatness that their God given abilities and their hard work makes mandatory. Little10 year old Johnny doesn’t understand how or why they became great, all he understands is that they are great and he believes they are very important for him to mimic and believe in.
Where else can these Icons of our Sports World make millions of dollars for just playing a game? America is the country that allows them to become icons and it confuses my intelligence that these athletes for some reason or other have begun to hate this country and the chances that it has given them? Would somebody who understand this dichotomy explain it to me. The country that has given them the chance to excel and earn astounding quantities of money is to be hated and disrespected because of what, Black and White? When little Johnny sees them disrespecting our flag or our National Anthem why shouldn’t he disrespect those things also? And which side of the Race problem should little Johnny decide upon?
How can a great athlete even utter the words “I don’t want to be a role model and I refuse to be one! When they step onto the court or the playing field they become role models whether they want to or not. They are all that little Johnny sees when he watches the game at home or at the site where the game is being played. And the players should be doing everything in their power to make little Johnny proud of them and proud of their country. Everything below this point is the treatise that I found so well put that I was responsible for publishing it even though it was not my personal writing.
To All Ballplayers Everywhere…………Take a Knee
Take a little trip to Valley Forge in January. If you don’t know where that is, just Google it from the sidelines. Hold a musket ball in your fingers and imagine it piercing your flesh and breaking a bone or two. There won’t be a doctor or trainer to assist you until after the battle, so just wait your turn. Take your cleats and socks off to get a real experience. Then take a knee.
Then, take one at the beach in Normandy where man after American man stormed the beach, even as the one in front of him was shot to pieces…the very sea stained with American blood. The only blockers most had were the dead bodies in front of them, riddled with bullets from enemy fire.
Take a knee in the sweat soaked jungles of Vietnam. from Khe San to Saigon… Anywhere will do. REAL Americans died in all those jungles. There was no playbook that told them what was next, but they knew what flag they represented. When they came home, they were protested as well and spit on for reasons only cowards know.
Take another knee in the blood drenched sands of Fallujah in 110 degree heat. Wear your Kevlar helmet and battle dress… Your number won’t be printed on it unless your number is up! You’ll need to stay hydrated but there won’t be anyone to squirt Gatorade into your mouth. You’re on your own.
There’s a lot of places to take a knee. Real Americans have given their lives all over the world. When you use the banner under which they fought as a source for your displeasure, you dishonor the memories of those who bled for the very freedoms you have. That’s what the red stripes mean. It represents the blood of those who spilled a sea of it defending your liberty.
While you’re on your knee, pray for those that came before you, not on a manicured lawn striped and printed with numbers to announce every inch of ground taken but on nameless hills and bloodied beaches and sweltering forests and bitter cold mountains…every inch marked by an American life lost serving that flag you protest.
No cheerleaders, no announcers, no coaches, no fans…just American men and women…delivering the real fight against those who chose to harm us…blazing a path so you would have the right to “take a knee.”
You haven’t an inkling what it took to get you where you are; but your “protest” is duly noted. Not only is it disgraceful to a nation of real heroes, it serves the purpose of pointing to your ingratitude for those who chose to defend you under that banner that will still wave long after your jersey is issued to another…
I have trouble understanding one thing and that is if these multi-millionaire athletes hate our country, our flag and our national anthem so much why don’t they must move to another country????
Political Musings-At the Sunset of My Life 