Great? More Like Ashamed.

I am not even sure where to begin expressing my dismay for the silly rule enacted by the NFL earlier this week, noting that players who kneel rather than stand during the national anthem will be fined (actually it is a team fine, and who pays is unclear). As would be expected during these days when speaking out against what is wrong seems out of vogue, the league tried to give itself — and the players — an out, allowing the most “incorrigible” to remain in the locker room until the anthem has concluded.

This is all under that faux aegis of “make America great again.”

Huh? When have we not been a great country and place to live? Just what is it we are so anxious to recapture that we’re willing to risk our system, our checks, our balances, our reputation, and our freedoms — those things that not only separated us from the rest of the world, but those things that did make us great — for power and money?

Worse, when did cruelty and spite and contempt worm their way into our dialogues rather than at least a modicum of civility? What happened to that obscure principle once noted by Captain James T. Kirk in this way: “Courtesy is for everybody.”

And, especially, in deference to those who believe America is a “Christian” country, I ask this first: Would the Jesus, who sought to succor the poor and heal the infirm, truly approve of the cold shoulder our countrymen — from Parkland to Puerto Rico — are getting?

Has the idea of, per Atticus Finch, “you never really get to know someone until you have stood inside his shoes and walked around in them” gone completely by the wayside?

I believe courtesy and basic understanding are gone in our political climate. The idea that true patriotism is modified by whether one sits or stands during a song is not only specious but duplicitous, and here are a couple of reasons that prove what I am saying.

The second amendment of the Constitution reads thus: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Note that there is nothing stating what kind of arms, so who is to say that verbiage doesn’t implicitly suggest an AK-47, even though I personally do not think that is what the framers had in mind?

But, OK, let’s say that despite polls of Americans who want more limited access to assault weapons, the NRA influence that makes a Bushmaster legal is legitimate.

Well, the first amendment of that same Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Well, if the second amendment means “any” weapon, then the first means a “redress of grievances” and that is precisely what kneeling to bring attention to the horrific treatment of minorities — particularly African Americans — at the hands of the police and those who think America was better during the days of Jim Crow.

Then let’s also imagine if the same men who kneel were making a pro life statement:  Would the same people who hate taking a knee now suddenly see the light and embrace the protest with open arms? Because we all know what the answer would be.

Let us not lose sight of these questions and also acknowledge that standing for the anthem no more indicates patriotism than does reading the bible, or going to church connote any kind of spirituality. For it is what is in our hearts that matters.

Equally to the point, kneeling, as employed by the NFL, is indeed a religious gesture of respect. In fact, as I understand it, soldiers attending a funerals of comrades lost in battle often kneel in honor of their fallen mate. So, this is hardly a gesture of disrespect.

Remember too that both Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi argued that justice would always triumph over injustice and that both protesting the bullying of minorities by segments of the population, as well as the police at times, is the right thing to do.

The response to the NFL protest today is no different than it was in in the 50s when members of the Yankees knelt in protest of the lynchings and Jim Crow laws only to be vilified by the KKK and its sympathizers. Well, the sad reality is those who voice outrage at the protests of NFL players are indeed the modern cousins of the KKK and groups that shut down the same kind of protest over 50 years ago.

If you are old enough, you might remember that in the 60s, the great Olympic champion boxer Cassius Clay converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Ali  refused to fight in Viet Nam for many of the same issues and points as those initiated by Colin Kaepernick.

In the end, however, Ali who was both jailed and stripped of his title at the time of his protest,  proved to not only be right but wound up being one of our most admired figures of the last century, sports or not.

Now, if you asked me, if business is business, and the NFL wants to put out a quality product, noting that 70% of their players are African American, the league would be smart to simply backtrack. Because in the end, if even just 60% of those athletes kneel respectfully every week, the teams will simply have to capitulate as the strength is in the number of players, not the misguided brains of the owners.

Because the owners cannot fine and suspend (and potentially alienate) that many players and still expect to put on any kind of game that would interest the same people who hate the kneeling in the first place. And if we think Jerry Jones would rather fine and sit Ezekiel Elliott and lose a game to prove a point rather than simply win, the issue becomes rhetorical.

Maybe we can all grow and wise up and think about the other guy — and Gandhi, Dr. King, and Ali. And for once maybe we could both do the right thing and be on the right side of an issue.

To me that would prove what I always felt anyway: That America never stopped being great in the first place.

Tune into the Tout Wars Hour on the FNTSY network, hosted by me, with Justin Mason and featuring Lord Z every Sunday, 2-4 PM ET/11 AM-1 PM PT, and you can follow me @lawrmichaels.