Ed Asner, the tough but oh so tenderhearted boss on the Mary Tyler
Moore Show, has a long history of being an outspoken supporter of his
fellow working class people.
But beware of the Fox in the Hen House. Donald Trump makes outlandish
tweets to distract Americans, while is band of Weasels are free to
grab the fat hens.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/1/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8137/813705.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 37 October 9, 2017
(front page)
Football players ‘take a knee’ to defend the right
to protest
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
More than 200 National Football League (NFL) players took a knee during
the U.S. national anthem prior to their games Sept. 24. Hundreds of
others locked arms with their coaches, and in some cases even team
owners, a number of whom had supported Donald Trump’s campaign for
president. These protests were in response to comments by the president
that athletes who do not stand during the singing of “The Star-Spangled
Banner” should be fired for not respecting the flag.
Actions occurred at virtually every stadium where NFL games were played.
Three teams — the Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee
Titans — stayed off the field while the anthem was sung. A league
official said teams that did so wouldn’t face fines, though NFL rules
say they could.
Such protests began a year ago when Colin Kaepernick — at the time
quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers — refused to stand during the
national anthem to demonstrate opposition to racial discrimination and
cop killings of Blacks and others around the country. He won support
among several league players who took similar action.
Since then owners have refused to hire Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to
the Super Bowl in 2013, but was dropped by team owners after last
season. Prior to their game on Sunday, some Miami Dolphins players wore
black T-shirts with “#IMWITHKAP” on the front, a show of support for
Kaepernick.
Anthem singers take a knee
Some of the performers who sang the anthem at league games got into the
act. In Detroit, recording artist Rico Lavelle performed “The
Star-Spangled Banner” before the Lions game with the Atlanta Falcons. As
he got to the final words “home of the…,” he took a knee, raised his
fist and belted out “brave” to end the anthem. Three hours later in
Seattle, singer Meghan Linsey also knelt at the end.
In Foxboro, Massachusetts, more than a dozen players and coaches of the
Super Bowl champion New England Patriots knelt or linked arms, including
quarterback Tom Brady, who had supported the campaign of Donald Trump.
The protest spread to Game 1 of the Women’s National Basketball
Association finals, with the Los Angeles Sparks leaving the court to
skip the anthem, while the home team Minnesota Lynx locked arms along
the free-throw line in front of their bench. And in baseball, Oakland
Athletics rookie Bruce Maxwell became the first Major League player to
kneel during the national anthem.
Others joined in solidarity. In Missouri, 97-year-old World War II
veteran and farmer John Middlemas also took a knee, tweeting, “Those
kids have every right to protest.” Actor Ed Asner, 87, tweeted, “I am
taking a knee on Sunday. I might need someone to help me up.”
On Sept. 25 President Trump said that fans should boycott the football
games if the protests continue.
Many op-ed pundits tried to twist Trump’s tweets to fit into a more
far-reaching charge promoted by many liberals and all of the
middle-class left that the president is an unreconstructed white
supremacist. The day after the games, New York Times columnist Charles
Blow called Trump a “race fiend” and said, “Trumpism is becoming ever
more synonymous with racism.”
As an alternative to protesting football players, President Trump
praised the car-racing organization NASCAR, pointing to some team
owner’s statements that they would fire drivers if they wouldn’t stand
up for the anthem. But NASCAR racing star Dale Earnhardt Jr. disagreed.
“All Americans R granted rights 2 peaceful protests,” he tweeted. “Those
who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable — JFK.”
Some media tried to make something of the fact that one member of the
Steelers, Alejandro Villanueva, the starting left tackle and an Army
Ranger who did three tours of duty in Afghanistan, did come about five
feet out onto the field during the anthem in Pittsburgh.
But Villanueva has expressed solidarity with Kaepernick. “I will be the
first to hold hands with Colin Kaepernick and do something about the way
minorities are being treated in the United States, the injustice that is
happening with police brutality, the justice system, inequalities in
pay,” he told ESPN.
One thing all this shows clearly is the powerful impact the mass
Black-led movement that overthrew Jim Crow segregation made on the U.S.
There is less racism here than anytime in the country’s history.
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