@larryt20 - Hi, Larry Thompson, welcome to Steemit!
I've upvoted this post and noticed for the 10-thousandth time that my voting power is so insignificant that you haven't earned one cent from my good opinion, alas. But I completely agree with your "editorial." Since America has lost its privilege, power, global status, and undeserved reputation as defender of the poor and oppressed, we must preserve the last bastion of our alleged liberty, “free speech.” Is it time to screen-shot the noble plaque at the base of “The Statue of Liberty” and hope that posterity may discover it in the rubble that appears to be our future? We now live in a country conceived by our Luciferian, landed gentry, Freemason forefathers who thought and wrote in brilliant complex sentences which can no longer be comprehended by today’s college graduates. (“Huh?”)
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
We are the aforementioned “homeless tempest-tossed,” dog-paddling to stay afloat as geoengineered weather disasters flood or burn what was formerly known as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” I have just hoisted myself onto a passing boulder. The boulder rolled by in the floodwaters of the urban dams that were strategically lowered in Houston. The dams released enough water to destroy the remaining neighborhoods which had miraculously survived “Hurricane Harvey.” I whip out my trusty notepad because of the urgent need to respond to your post. Here’s my response:
“YOU’RE RIGHT!”
Truly you have nailed the crux of the matter with one exception. I do not ask the athletes to go back to the drawing board and find a form of protest that unifies the country. There is no such form. Conflicting ideas will always conflict. The athletes have chosen, IMHO, an unassailable gesture of respect and humility. Kneeling honors God and petitions God to intervene to save what is left of America.
First of all thank you! Your reply was very respectful and well spoken. I failed to mention in my initial post that I did know that Colin chose to kneel because of not only honoring God, but also for fallen soldiers. The man in the first picture in this post is a military member that Colin essentially "hit the drawing board" with to avoid being viewed as disrespectful. I think this was amazing that he was willing to take other individuals thoughts and feelings into his ideas for protesting equality.
My problem is I know you are right. I know that there isn't a way to protest that unifies the country without causing more divide because they are conflicting ideas....but the problem is that I can't accept this. I have to hope and believe that there is always a way to make things better. If i quit believing in this...then what is left?
Also I feel your pain on the upvotes. I am the same, but I'm still having fun and trying to figure this all out. I have to say it is fun thus far.
@larryt20 - My goodness, it's been four days and somehow I must have missed your reply! Usually I'm much better about continuing an unfinished conversation. So lets talk about small matters first. I do not understand the voting system at all. It is in some way related to author and curation rewards which affect payouts and wallet value. In other words, it's beyond me. There is a penalty for voting within the first 30 minutes after a new post appears, but an upvote after seven days is wasted except for its positive impact on morale. Who made up these rules? Wiser minds than ours?
Regarding the players' protest, what I so greatly admire about the decision to kneel is the respectful, non-confrontational, imploring posture. Kneeling invites the wisdom of God to govern and guide an ongoing dialogue about unresolved concerns. You are so right that we must always hope and pray and work for peaceful solutions in all things.