Trump’s idea of America is un-American

Protest, and the right to do so, is as American as the proverbial apple pie.

My blood boils when I see the ignorance of those who insult NFL football star Colin Kaepernick for his kneel-down protests against racial injustice in the United States — a peaceful expression, and a reaction to police arrests, shootings and killings of many unarmed, and oftentimes perfectly innocent black men for the simple “crime” of being black. Kaepernick should be applauded, not condemned. And his kneeling has nothing to do with the flag, or the many soldiers who may stand proudly defending it. In fact, it is the kind of action that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. may have joined if he were alive today.

Of course, President Trump, with his penchant for division, and his espousal of hatred and fear, saw opportunity here and resorted to the worst among us. In the process, he has managed to convince a significant number of Americans to believe that Kaepernick’s stand is one of disrespect for the American flag and the country’s soldiers. 

The president then doubled down and called those who knelt with Kaepernick “sons of bitches” and ordered the owners of teams in the National Football League (NFL) to “fire them.” Interestingly, those owners are all men and members of the ‘One Percent’ in America, and also white. And except for a very silent few, they have gone along with the president’s orders.

And the facts regarding the persons Trump insults calling them SOBs, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, are that “while 70% of NFL players are black, only 9% of managers in the league office are (that’s vs. 13% of Americans overall). And as for team CEOs or presidents—the one’s chiefly responsible for deciding what to do about kneeling—it’s exactly 0%.”

Donald Trump may be too ignorant to realize that if not for protests there would not have been an American Revolution, and therefore a United States. For no protests, the Vietnam War may have raged on longer than even the wars we wage today — that seem never ending (and highly profitable for some). If not for protests, women may never have gotten the right to vote. If not for protests, civil rights, voting rights for excluded groups, and a host of other really important things would not have been achieved. 

Then again, Trump could care less. He has shown to be the type of person who claims to be patriotic, while at the same time never having walked the walk. For example, Trump ridiculed the late Senator John McCain for having been captured and held prisoner of war in Vietnam. This ridicule comes from a man who appears to love to play toy soldiers. And in the field of battle — the board games he may have played once (or still does), he gallantly serves as a conquering general and hero. Still, the fact is that there are many who consider him a coward who skipped duty in wartime… because he claimed to have bone spurs in his feet. 

This is the obese buffoon who fat-shames women, and is willing to insult others on Twitter and behind his Secret Service security detail. He wilts when he has to face someone in a difficult situation (case in point, the day he cowered in front of Vladimir Putin). In other words, Trump is not the most courageous of men or women. And maybe that’s why he compensates by trying to convince us that he is…

Colin Kaepernick, on the other hand, saw a societal problem and decided to do something about it — in his way. He’s paid a price for it. Before football games that he used to play in (he is suing NFL owners for colluding and disallowing him to no longer play), most stand for the Star Spangled Banner. Kaepernick, and others with him, now take a knee instead, to draw attention to the senseless police actions against mostly black and brown men and women. 

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy

Kaepernick has shone a light on a problem

The Stanford Open Policing Project was conducted to collect information on who police stop and give tickets to routinely. “Starting in 2015, the Open Policing Project began requesting such data from state after state. To date, the project has collected and standardized more than 100 million records of traffic stop and search data from 31 states.” 

So far the study has found that “officers ticket, search, and arrest black and Hispanic drivers more often than whites. For example, when pulled over for speeding, black drivers are 20% more likely to get a ticket (rather than a warning) than white drivers, and Hispanic drivers are 30% more likely to be ticketed than white drivers. Black and Hispanic motorists are about twice as likely to be searched compared to white drivers.”

Coincidence? Or is this worthy of further study, and if nothing is done about it, protest? 

Vox went further and studied the disparities when police use force in this country. They found that “Black people are much more likely to be shot by police than their white peers.

“An analysis of the available FBI data by Vox’s Dara Lind found that U.S. police kill black people at disproportionate rates: Black people accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. Although the data is incomplete because it’s based on voluntary reports from police agencies around the country, it highlights the vast disparities in how police use force.” 

Kaepernick has worked with police departments and even a Green Beret by the name of Nate Boyer, who has voiced his support for Kaepernick, to look for solutions. Right here in Miami, Dolphins player Kenny Stills, another football player who kneels before games, has traveled the country and met with police departments and community members, and seeks to bring about change.

And yet our president has tripled down on his message of hate and division and continues to use the issue as a ‘dog whistle’ for the haters that love the Trump MAGA mantra. 

The evidence, as we have seen, is abundant. Any smart and well-intentioned leader would internalize the facts and attempt to bring relief to the problem. That is why Kaepernick’s stand is laudable. It has shone a light on major American tragedies that persist: racism and violence. Kaepernick and those who follow his lead in the NFL have looked for positive solutions. Not Trump, though.

It leads me to interpret what President Kennedy said in 1962, that if we don’t address the cancer now, it may lead to a major undoing later.