Media Distraction of the Month Club

Each week or month the media pushes some new political distraction in order to keep you from thinking about the changes that are going on in the West. Currently, the distraction has to do with football players who choose not to stand for the national anthem. Lets start by looking at the issues involved. Firstly, why do we play the national anthem at football games? It is not a requirement and it is not a law, it is a choice made by the NFL itself. Whether or not one chooses to stand for it is a personal choice and our military died for your right to choose whether or not to stand. They fought so we would have the personal freedom to choose. Funny how people that are complaining that conservatives are being prevented from free speech in public spaces are also complaining that people are exercising their right to expression by not standing for the anthem. On the left they believe people have a right to not stand for the anthem; but, not the right to speak on college campuses. Hypocrisy is never a good look regardless of the side you are on.

My starting point is that this whole thing is a non-issue. To be clear, I support young people who believe that it is right to fight for this country and see themselves as defending this country. At the same time, I don't see us waging wars that actually protect this country, I see us fighting wars for oil, control and to fund the military industrial complex. I'm pretty sure that Libya and Syria were not going to invade the United States and none of this has anything to do with football or the national anthem. In fact, I don't think people know what they are protesting against in the first place.

Here is a simple question. Why did football team owners take the position that it was okay to protest the national anthem? Why not just refuse to play it as they are not required to in the first place? Why did a singer of the national anthem choose to take a knee during his song instead of just choosing not to sing it at all? The NFL chose to make this a political issue and President Trump chose to address it because they made it an issue. If the media had not pushed the issue, most of us wouldn't have even noticed. If I saw a guy kneeling during the national anthem, I would assume he was praying like when Tebow would kneel.

Because of my religious and political beliefs I will not pledge allegiance to a piece of fabric. For the same reasons I will not swear on a bible. I also choose not to make an issue of these things in public and to allow others the right to do as they see fit.

There is a reason why the complaints about statues of long dead southerners is no longer front page news. Just so you know, many of the parks that have statues of these dead southerners were given to cities, counties and states on the grounds that they be named after these old dead soldiers and if the statues are removed the land goes back to the family that gave the park to the community. As the false arguments about old rusty statues of dead southerners died off, the media turned it's attention to multi-millionaire football players taking a knee during the national anthem, just as meaningless. These things are distractions not real issues. Stagnant wages, healthcare and outsourcing of jobs effect our day to day lives in real terms, someone choosing to take a knee is not.

This little foolishness will pass soon enough and the corporate media will replace it with a new outrage. Each month we get a new outrage because it drives ratings and distracts the public.