Dissing the National Anthem and the Real Injustice

In 1953, the beloved late comedian Andy Griffith released on record a monologue comedy bit entitled What it Was, Was Football.  As a kid, I remember hearing that story on Henry Boggen's Sunday night radio program on WBT-AM in Charlotte, and I have always considered it one of my favorites.  The gist of the story was that this country guy was taken by his friends to what appeared to be a college football game, something he knew nothing about.  After getting his big orange soft drink, he and his friends make their way into the stadium and find seats.  Oblivious still to what is going on, Griffith tells in the story that all of a sudden a bunch of men emerge from a "little outhouse" at the end of a big cow pasture, and they start chasing after a "funny-looking pumpkin" while a bunch of "convicts" scurry about on the field.  In his retrospection at the end of the routine, he finds out what he was seeing was a football game, and it came as quite a revelation.  A story like that, because of its down-to-earth humor, is timeless, but it also conveys a message to today's society.

I have never been a fan of football at all, and never really played sports other than when my 6th-grade teacher made us play at recess.  Despite not really liking football or any other sport, for the most part as a kid it only took me about 5 minutes to figure out how the game was played, and I still understand the fundamental concepts of those games even today.  Andy Griffith's first-person character and I have something in common - although at first we didn't have a clue as to what the sport was, it can be easily figured out in a short time, and that is something I want to revisit shortly as it plays into my story here.

Over the past couple of weeks, a lot of press has been devoted to the activities of a professional athlete by the name of Colin Kaepernick, who I believe plays for the San Francisco 49ers.  I really don't give a rat's tail honestly about what most professional athletes do, but in this case it has gotten attention of even those who don't follow the sport.  Kaepernick refused to respect the National Anthem when it was sung because he believes that it "glorifies a racist, corrupt nation," and this has rightly incurred the ire of many good folks.  Kaepernick's disrespect is one thing - he has a right to do that, and although he's an idiot, the Constitution gives him the right to be stupid - but the kicker is his rationale - he is talking about an "unjust system" yet he is inconsistent.  And, that is what I am going to talk about.

An average athlete garners millions of dollars per game doing something it took me five minutes to learn when I was in the fifth grade, and it took only a short time for a rural bumpkin like Andy Griffith's fictional monologue tells to figure out what goes on.   In other words, athletics takes no real skill.  Sure, the more you play the better you should be, I will grant that, but at the same time it doesn't take rocket science to play football.  So, why is a man like Kaepernick getting a fortune doing what a grade school kid picks up in one period of recess?   This question addresses the real injustice.

Kaepernick is supposedly anti-cop, yet a cop performs a valuable public service - it takes a lot of courage to do what our policemen do, and many risk their lives doing so for a salary that is far below what they deserve. Also, police work entails very intense and careful training - not everyone can be a cop.  It takes a hell of a lot more skill to be a cop than it does to kick a ball over a goalpost, yet who gets the bigger salary?   Then there are our teachers - teachers have to often train for years, and it takes a lot of dedication to mold young minds in the classroom, yet the average teacher's salary is shameful - they get paid next to nothing for doing a lot.  So, it takes a hell of a lot more skill to teach people than it does to kick a ball over a goalpost, yet again who gets the bigger salary?  I have heard this hypocritical rhetoric before too - from politicians, from actors, from academic elites, etc.  Yet, the inconsistency is glaring, and let's talk about that.

For all his whining and protesting, Kaepernick has it pretty good - he gets millions annually in salary, can do what he wants when he wants, yet he whines about "injustice." However, for all his protests about a "corrupt American society," what I don't see from Kaepernick is his hatred for the American dollar - he sure loves getting those!  The inconsistency in this is also something that is shared by other mouthy high-profile blowhards such as Oprah Winfrey, Michael Moore, Sean Penn, and a large number of academic elitists at many of the universities in this country.  They run their mouths, yet the ticker tape on their stocks runs faster - at the same time, teachers struggle, cops struggle, and the average working-man of any race often has issues meeting his monthly bills and putting food on the table for his family, yet we don't seem to acknowledge that.  Rather, we look at "poor Colin Kaepernick" who is such a "hero" for making an ass of himself on the sports field - poor guy; must really stink getting all those millions of dollars for doing little while many of our vets, who gave themselves for our country, starve on street corners and spend the nights in shelters.  Oh yeah Kaepernick - you and your friends have it so bad!  And, that is the real injustice.

It is time that we stop putting celebrities up on pedestals for saying and doing stupid things to stir up controversy and draw attention to themselves.  I am all for people working hard and even acquiring good fortunes if they do it honestly, but what I am not for is seeing skilled professionals who invest much in preparing for their vocations struggling to make ends meet while athletes with no skill whatsoever can say what they want, do what they want, and they are "sanctified" by the duped masses as "heroes" for doing it, many of those masses who themselves are struggling.  To the masses I say this - instead of wasting money watching a jerk like Kaepernick kick a ball around (something a three-year-old toddler can do) why don't you use that money toward something more constructive?  Maybe if we start hitting these athletes where it hurts - their cojones and their bank accounts seem to be synonymous with each other - maybe it will humble them a little and the Colin Kaepernicks, Dennis Rodmans, Michael Vicks, OJ Simpsons, and other crooks posing as athletes will be cut out to pasture where they belong and it can put their engorged egos on much-needed diets.   We should also do the same with the music business as well, as people like Simon Cowell (who is so tone-deaf he has to use sign language to urinate) have no business dictating what constitutes talent - do you ever notice there are no instrumentalists or trained musicians on shows like "American Idol" and "The Voice?"   Reason for that is that these programs are not about talent, but rather who has the tight booty they can shake at the judge.   If shows like this featured real talent, they would feature people like Carol from our parish church, who has a beautiful singing voice and also can play any keyboard instrument with finesse and class - Carol though lives on a fixed income she has to supplement by offering piano lessons to kids, and I guarantee she don't make millions doing it.  Yet, her dedication and love for what she does speaks for itself, as she is not in it for the money or fame; she does it from her own passion.  That is another injustice in society that the Kaepernicks don't seem to get either - people who have passion for what they do and do it with excellence are not rewarded for their efforts, but are marginalized instead economically.  It's a crying shame.

That is my "rant" for this week, as I felt I had to address this issue of over-spoiled celebrities who like to say things they cannot back up, and in my eyes they are simply not worth paying attention to anymore.  If more people thought the same, it would cut off their funding, and perhaps they could be jogged back into the real world where the rest of us live.  It's "dreaming the impossible dream" in today's society, I know - but, one day thankfully God will set things right.  It's that hope that sustains me, and hopefully it will you as well.