Miserable Creatures

         Abstract:  Many privileged Americans wearing National Football League (NFL) uniforms have decided to use their celebrity status to make a political statement.  This is their choice.  They are free to do this in America, even in London.  They obviously have no idea that to express such political freedom is an American right, a right that does not exist in other parts of the world such as Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, or China.  In expressing their right, they insult the millions who have given far more to protect this right.  Perhaps someday they may finally realize what it means to truly be American.  This article examines these circumstances in a conversation between Old Gadfly, an American citizen with an inquiring mind (IM), and a seasoned combat aviator with an inquiring mind (AM).  Gadfly closes with a reflective observation from John Stuart Mill about the American Civil War.

Old Gadfly:  Gentlemen, I woke this morning to a headline in USA Today:  “Jaguars owner Shahid Khan joins in on NFL's national anthem protests.”  To aggravate the act, it took place during an exhibition game in London.  Then, throughout the day other teams in America participated in similar protests.  AM, like these NFL players you and I wore a uniform, you for over 35 years and I for over 34 years.  What are your thoughts?

AM:  My first thought was disappointment that Americans, especially on foreign soil, would disrespect the flag and the national anthem—symbols of America that represent the idea of what America stands for: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Many of our fellow Americans gave life and limb to protect and to advance these rights for America and other nations.  I pictured the thousands of crosses, and among these crosses Stars of David, strewn across Europe and the Pacific Theater marking the graves of fellow Americans who gave their lives liberating others from the tyranny of socialist fascism.  Fascism and socialist communism in the Soviet Union and China were and are oppressive ideologies.

The image above is from Lorraine American Cemetery in France.  None of these individuals had a labor union to keep them from working more than 40 hours in a week, to insist upon overtime pay for more than 40 hours, or to sideline for a concussion.  The image I saw this morning was a stark contrast:  privileged athletes making a political statement, apparently about racism.  My first reaction was to break out in uncontrollable laughter.   Not a single one of these athletes was forcefully hauled to this field, suited up, and then released from ankle chains to harvest a win for the team owner.  In fact, all the athletes wearing a uniform on that field earn more in one year than 95% of Americans earn in several years.  What racist institutions kept them from this athletic achievement?  The majority of NFL players do not represent the nationwide demographics.  So, if America was racist, then why are there so many minority players wearing NFL uniforms?

Old Gadfly:  Keep in mind this is all a reaction to President Trump’s public language in (a) suggesting the NFL should fire players that disrespect the flag and National Anthem and (b) disinviting the NBA basketball player that publicly proclaimed he would not attend the White House celebration.

IM:  The President campaigned on Making America Great Again.  The professional athletes in the NFL and NBA are apparently not happy about that.

Old Gadfly:  They certainly are not alone.  Others feel the same way.  For example, look at the push back Denver Bronco Derek Wolfe received when he disagreed with kneeling during the National Anthem.

AM:  Thank God for red blooded Americans with NASCAR!

Old Gadfly:  I think this all boils down to a fundamental understanding of what America is all about.  There are Americans who believe in the American dream—that through hard work and perseverance as good patriotic citizens of a Constitutional Republic the pursuit of happiness is real.  There are others that believe differently.  They believe in a large central government that promotes social justice in the pursuit of utopia this side of death (read Bernie Sanders' book, Revolution).  Thus, America is in the midst of a culture war.  Amazingly, today’s conversation began in London.  At the start of the American Civil War, a British political philosopher, John Stuart Mill, convinced the British government not to intervene in the American contest.  In his article, he made this closing observation: 

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.  When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people.  A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice—is often the means of their regeneration.  A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature, who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.  As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.

           I would submit that those taking a knee are not doing it for patriotic reasons.  To the contrary, they are instruments—they are miserable creatures serving a master's cause.  Who is the master?  The master is an ideology that is Marxist and that can only be justified by a belief in oppression, whether real or imagined.  Where are these players in expressing outrage about the real oppression in Cuba, Venezuela, or North Korea?  The NFL players should stick to the direction of their coaches since this is a business contract.  If they want to protest the social contract with the American society, then they should do their due diligence to see where the real injustice exists, such as our inner cities managed for decades by a particular political party.  The majority of Americans believes in the idea of America and wants to Make America Great Again—for ALL Americans.  NFL players can become great again and real American role models, if they stop serving dangerous ideological masters.