American Political Prose

"As the weakness and wants of man naturally lead to an association of individuals, under a common authority whereby each may have the protection of the whole against danger from without, and enjoy in safety within, the advantages of social intercourse, and an exchange of the necessaries & comforts of life: in like manner feeble communities, independent of each other, have resorted to a Union, less intimate, but with common Councils, for the common safety against powerful neighbors, and for the preservation of justice and peace among themselves. Ancient history furnishes examples of these confederal associations, tho' with a very imperfect account, of their structure, and of the attributes and functions of the presiding Authority. There are examples of modern date also, some of them still existing, the modifications and transactions of which are sufficiently known." -- James Madison

"Mr. Clay's eloquence did not consist, as many fine specimens of eloquence do, of types and figures -- of antithesis, and elegant arrangement of words and sentences; but rather of that deeply earnest and impassioned tone, and manner, which can proceed only from great sincerity and a thorough conviction, in the speaker of the justice and importance of his cause. This it is, that truly touches the chords of sympathy; and those who heard Mr. Clay never failed to be moved by it, or ever afterwards, forgot the impression. All his efforts were made for practical effect. He never spoke merely to be heard. He never delivered a Fourth of July oration, or an eulogy on an occasion like this. As a politician or statesman, no one was so habitually careful to avoid all sectional ground. Whatever he did, he did for the whole country. In the construction of his measures he ever carefully surveyed every part of the field, and duly weighed every conflicting interest. Feeling, as he did, and as the truth surely is, that the world's best hope depended on the continued Union of these States, he was ever jealous of, and watchful for, whatever might have the slightest tendency to separate them.

"Mr. Clay's predominant sentiment, from first to last, was a deep devotion to the cause of human liberty -- a strong sympathy with the oppressed everywhere, and an ardent wish for their elevation. With him, this was a primary and all controlling passion. Subsidiary to this was the conduct of his whole life. He loved his country partly because it was his own country, but mostly because it was a free country; and he burned with a zeal for its advancement, prosperity and glory, because he saw in such, the advancement, prosperity and glory, of human liberty, human right and human nature. He desired the prosperity of his countrymen partly because they were his countrymen, but chiefly to show to the world that freemen could be prosperous.

"That his views and measures were always the wisest, needs not to be affirmed; nor should it be, on this occasion, where so many, thinking differently, join in doing honor to his memory. A free people, in times of peace and quiet -- when pressed by no common danger -- naturally divide into parties. At such times the man who is of neither party, is not -- cannot be, of any consequence. Mr. Clay, therefore, was of a party. Taking a prominent part, as he did, in all the great political questions of his country for the last half century, the wisdom of his course on many, is doubted and denied by a large portion of his countrymen; and of such it is not now proper to speak particularly. But there are many others, about his course upon which, there is little or no disagreement amongst intelligent and patriotic Americans. Of these last are the War of 1812, the Missouri question, Nullification, and the now recent compromise measures. In 1812 Mr. Clay, though not unknown, was still a young man. Whether we should go to war with Great Britain, being the question of the day, a minority opposed the declaration of war by Congress, while the majority, though apparently inclining to war, had, for years, wavered, and hesitated to act decisively. Meanwhile British aggressions multiplied, and grew more daring and aggravated. By Mr. Clay, more than any other man, the struggle was brought to a decision in Congress. The question, being now fully before congress, came up, in a variety of ways, in rapid succession, on most of which occasions Mr. Clay spoke. Adding to all the logic, of which the subject was susceptible, that noble inspiration, which came to him as it came to no other, he aroused, and nerved, and inspired his friends, and confounded and bore-down all opposition. Several of his speeches, on these occasions, were reported, and are still extant; but the best of these all never was. During its delivery the reporters forgot their vocations, dropped their pens, and sat enchanted from near the beginning to quite the close. The speech now lives only in the memory of a few old men; and the enthusiasm with which they cherish their recollection of it is absolutely astonishing. The precise language of this speech we shall never know; but we do know -- we cannot help knowing -- that, with deep pathos, it pleaded the cause of the injured sailor -- that it invoked the genius of the revolution -- that it apostrophised the names of Otis, of Henry and of Washington -- that it appealed to the interest, the pride, the honor and the glory of the nation -- that it shamed and taunted the timidity of friends -- that it scorned, and scouted, and withered the temerity of domestic foes -- that it bearded and defied the British Lion -- and rising, and swelling, and maddening in its course, it sounded the onset, till the charge, the shock, the steady struggle, and the glorious victory, all passed in vivid review before the entranced hearers." -- Abraham Lincoln

"A while back, I met a young man named Shamus at the VFW Hall in East Moline, Illinois. He was a good-looking kid, six-two or six-three, clear eyed, with an easy smile. He told me he’d joined the Marines and was heading to Iraq the following week. As I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, his absolute faith in our country and its leaders, his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all any of us might hope for in a child. But then I asked myself: Are we serving Shamus as well as he was serving us? I thought of more than 900 service men and women, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, who will not be returning to their hometowns. I thought of families I had met who were struggling to get by without a loved one’s full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or with nerves shattered, but who still lacked long-term health benefits because they were reservists. When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.

"Now let me be clear. We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated. John Kerry knows this. And just as Lieutenant Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who served with him in Vietnam, President Kerry will not hesitate one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and secure. John Kerry believes in America. And he knows it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper. For alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga.

"A belief that we are connected as one people. If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keeper—that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one.

"Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America—there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America." -- Barack Obama

"Obama is, without question, the WORST EVER president. I predict he will now do something really bad and totally stupid to show manhood! [...] I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke. [...] Everyone knows I am right that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart. In a couple of years, he will thank me. Be smart, Robert. [...] Wind turbines are ripping your country apart and killing tourism.Electric bills in Scotland are skyrocketing-stop the madness [...] Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism! [...] Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? ...Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" -- Donald Trump

Sexual Assault and Power

Women have come forward alleging that political journalist Mark Halperin sexually harassed and assaulted them.

It has been said many times that sexual harassment has more to do with power than with sexuality. Our Pussy Grabber-in-Chief has claimed, "When you're a star, they let you do it." Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly and Harvey Weinstein all used the control they wielded over women's careers to help them get away with all sorts of disgusting behavior. And that it has been considered disgusting rather than criminal, that they may have lost their jobs over it but not yet gone to jail -- that may have a lot to do with these men's power too.

And now Mark Halperin faces a dozen or more accusers. Halperin was not only a boss with power over female employees, power which he abused, he also seems particularly obsessed with the topic of power, and with having his own power acknowledged. Back in 2002, he started publishing The Note, a daily column which, although it has always been publicly posted on the ABC News website, seemed to be written by Halprin in a way which was intentionally difficult for non-"insiders" to understand. (Halperin has sinced moved on from ABC, but The Note remains there, written much less cryptically by others.) Halperin addressed The Note to the people he called the Gang of 500: the 500 most powerful people in Washington (according to Halprin). Mary Matalin has called Halperin "the insider's insider's insider." And his case makes me ask myself: what is power?

It seems to me that the power of individual people is a subjective thing. The more power people think you have -- the more power you have. To some extent, that is. You may be considered a powerful person by some, and not by others. I'm not a particularly big fan of John Prine, but one line in his song "That's The Way That The World Goes 'Round" has really stuck with me and given me food for thought, for decades. It's about a fellow whom Prine clearly dislikes quite a deal. Prine sings:

"He thinks he owns half of this town"

Back in the early 80's, that one line in a song I haven't felt the need to hear again told me that things like power are not as clear-cut as they seem to some people.

For one thing: is being a powerful player in Washington politics anything to be proud of, at the moment? Are the Gang of 500, including people designated by Halperin as SPIP (the smartest person in politics) and SSPIP (the 2nd-smartest person in politics) really worth all that much if all 500 of them together couldn't prevent the Trump Presidency? Is this the sort of thing which people who claim to be geniuses with vast influence want to take credit for?

For another thing: what is more powerful, being able to force yourself sexually on someone who doesn't want to be with you and get away with it, or having the ability to make someone want to be with you?

Does power make a man more attractive, as we so often hear from powerful men, or does it allow unattractive men to stay in denial about how unattractive they are, and in denial about certain powers which they have never had, powers which some other people have, who have been poor all their lives?

Do "insiders" really have the ability to accomplish amazing things? Or do they just have a mechanism to distract themselves from some deep inner insecurity, such as, for example, a fear that other people think they are anything but remarkable or amazing?

Think about Trump, Ailes, O'Reilley, Weinstein and Halperin. What have they done with their power? Do they and did they deserve it, is it and was it power well-spent? Of course not. Are we just going to let very similar monsters and mediocrities into the positions they vacate?

Great Big Fat Guy, Day 723

I look a lot more like Harvey Weinstein than I used to. Maybe more in the face than all-over. I'm still doing crunches and push-ups and stretching and cardio. Does Harvey work out? I have no idea. Maybe he does. Just a second [...] Okay, I could only find 1 photo on Google that gives you any idea of what shape he's in, and in that photo he doesn't look like someone who does crunches and pushups and stretching and cardio. Then again, it's only one photo. He's 65 years old, I'm 56.

I just don't want to go around reminding people of Harvey Weinstein because of my appearance. I guess seeing all of those pictures of him and noticing the resemblance has given me a bit of a kick in the pants about exercise.

I was going to get a haircut today, but I've changed my mind. For the past few years my hair has mainly been between short and extremely short. Lately I've been thinking about letting my hair grow longer. Today would've been about time for my normally-scheduled haircut, either a fade or a buzz-cut every 2 or 3 months, but then I decided to let it grow. I thought about an incident in the mid-90's, when I was working in the house crew at an Off-Broadway theatre, and I got my hair cut from rather long -- over the collar, at least -- to pretty short. Most of the comments I got about the haircut were positive -- in fact, maybe every reaction was positive except one: a woman who also worked in the house crew, and who was usually fairly reserved and quiet around me, shouted "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" the instant she saw me with the short haircut. So yeah, remembering that was what tipped the scales in favor of letting my hair grow today. Her reaction was the only negative one voiced to me about the haircut, but it also seemed like the only one which couldn't possibly have been insincere or pro-forma and basically indifferent. It seems that she had liked my hair when it was long.

Maybe that woman's taste in haircuts has changed over the past 21 years and now she prefers it high and tight. Who knows.

I don't look like I did 21 years ago, and my hair looks different too, a lot of it is grey now, but I'm 56 and I've got a lot of hair left, probably more than most guys my age, and I don't know how long I'll still have a lot of hair.

One reason for the short hair lately is that since 2008, I have a bathtub where I live, but no shower. It would be much easier to wash longer hair in a shower. In 2008 my brother and his girlfriend brought the materials needed to add a shower to my bathtub and said they'd helped me install it, but they didn't get around to it. The stuff is still here. I'm not what you'd call handy. On the other hand, I've read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I don't see how I could afford to hire someone to do the conversion for me. I wonder what my brother would do if I asked him for help with this. Maybe point out that he's not significantly more handy than I am. Well, a journey of a thousand mustard seeds begins with but a single step of sand.

I don't know whether I'll install a shower today. I doubt it. I mean, if I do that today I will totally surprise and impress myself. But it couldn't hurt to keep thinking about being able to shower in my home. Thinking, as you may know if you've thought about it, can lead to all sorts of things: ideas, plans, insights, blog posts, marriage to wealthy women who have showers in their bathrooms at home, healthier choices about diet and exercise, what have you.

Okay, Katy, get us out of here!

How to Write

1. Find a smooth and empty surface such as the pages of a new notebook, or one of those empty rectangles on the Internet, or a wall of polished marble, or a volleyball, etc.

2. Find something suitable for making marks on that empty surface, such as a pen or pencil, or a computer keyboard, or a hammer and chisel, or a magic marker or whatever.

3. Scribble and scribble and scribble on that empty surface until you are very tired.

4. Play with cats to help you cope with the heavy workload and restore your energy.

5. The next day, and the day after that, and the day after that and so forth, repeat steps 1 through 4.

6. Repeat step 5 until you are rich and famous. (If you actually enjoy writing or otherwise feel somehow compelled to do it, you may continue writing even after this point.)

There are billions and billions of books which claim to tell you how to write, but what they actually attempt to tell you -- or what they claim to attempt to tell you in the cases where their authors don't actually care about you or your writing career and just want to sell books by exploiting your hopes and dreams, which might actually be almost all the cases -- is how to write well.

The thing is, people almost never agree about who writes well and who doesn't, which makes even those books written by people who actually care, worthless -- with one exception:



How to Write, by Gertrude Stein. This book is exceptional quite simply because, as everyone who has ever been anyone heartily agrees, Ms Stein wrote exceptionally well. Sistah came from Oakland back when there was no there there, and didn't play. Anyone who says she didn't write exceptionally well is probably either an innocent oaf or a very bad person who perhaps will try to sell you a worthless book or swampland in Florida. Watch out for the bad ones, and warn everyone you know, and strangers too!

Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris.

"Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris."

That's Latin for "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It's in the Bible no less than 3 times: Tobit 4:15, Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31. And it's also pretty similar to Leviticus 19:18.

And the same basic idea is also to be found in ancient texts from China, India, Persia and pre-Christian Egypt and Greece.

So what, basically, is my problem? Just this: although it's a pretty good rule, it can be improved upon. Because not everyone wants and dislikes the same sorts of treatment. "Do unto others as they would have you do unto them" is an improvement over "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It's more considerate, more sensitive.

But, of course, even that is not perfect, because life is not perfect. A crazed person who is committing mass murder with an automatic weapon may want to be allowed to continue doing what he's doing. But most of us would agree that it's better to stop him. That's just one extreme example of situations where we generally agree that it's right to stop someone, even though that's not what he wants.

Germans, who love to rhyme like nobody's business, have put it into a rhyme:

"Was du nicht willst, dass man dir tu, das füg auch keinem andern zu."

Just now, on Facebook, some German-speaking people were all agreeing with each other about how perfect the Golden Rule -- or, in German, "die Goldene Regel" -- is. I started to write a comment in German, to say to them that I felt that it was not perfect, for the reason I have expressed above.

But then I stopped and considered that, although I would like it when someone would comment in such a way in such a conversation, many people definitely do not like it at all, and that these particular people probably wouldn't like it. And so, instead of doing unto them as I would have others do unto me, I did unto them as I thought they would like me to do unto them, and erased my comment and just left them alone, and instead, I came here and wrote this blog post.

Well, I didn't leave them completely alone: I left a comment which consisted of "Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris." I hope that didn't bother them.

Why Latin? Because I like Latin and would like to see it restored to its former prominence. Not because I have any reason to believe that there is something characteristically Latin or Roman about "Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris."

Theorie

"Theorie -- von dem Wort ging seit den sechziger Jahren ein magisches Leuchten aus. Theorie war ein Glaubensartikel, eine Wahrheitsmaschine und ein Lebensstil. Doch woher kam die Faszination für die gefährlichen Gedanken? Philipp Felsch folgt in seinem grandios geschriebenen Buch den Hoffnungen und Irrwegen einer Generation, die sich in den Dschungel der schwierigen Texte begab. Für drei Jahrzehnte gehörte der Theorieband als Vademekum in jede Manteltasche. Es war die Zeit der apokalyptischen Meisterdenker, der glamourösen Unverständlichkeit und der umstürzenden Lektüreerlebnisse. In einer Welt, die im Kalten Krieg erstarrte, ging nur von großen Ideen Bewegung aus. Je schwieriger die Texte, desto intensiver die Lektüre, je abstrakter die Argumente, desto relevanter für die Wirklichkeit. Heute, wo die intellektuellen Energien von '68 in schwach glimmende Substanzen zerfallen sind und viele der einstigen Akteure ihre Memoiren geschrieben haben, ist es Zeit zurückzublicken: Was war Theorie? In West-Berlin versorgte der Merve Verlag die Leser von den Kadern der Studentenbewegung über Spontis und Punks bis zu den Avantgarden des Kunstbetriebs mit ihrer Ration von wildem Denken.
Philipp Felsch schreibt die Geschichte einer geistigen Revolte, indem er den Abenteuern der Büchermacher und ihres Umfelds folgt. Vor allem aber vertraut er sich der Geschichte ihrer Leser an, um eine Epoche wiederauferstehen zu lassen, in der das Denken noch geholfen hat."

Von dem Klappentext aus zu beurteilen (Ich weiss, man sollte das nie tun aber) waere mir das Buch ein wenig zu grossenwahnsinnig. Aber das kann durchaus an mir liegen und vielleicht weiss ich immer noch ueberhaupt nicht, was man mit "Theorie" alles sagen will. Ich sehe (bzw sah) das alles ja von Tausenden von Kilometern weg und lese es in meiner zweiten Sprache. Oder in meiner dritten Sprache wenn es auf Franzoesisch geschrieben ist.

Oder es kann der Wut des Kalibans sein, der hier mich zu schaffen geht, und der Abscheu von meiner eigenen haesslichen dummen Grandiositaet, der Scham vor Erinnerung an einigen albern-grandiosen Augenblicke meiner Vergangenheit, und beileibe nicht alle nur meiner Jugend...

Auch erinnert mich der Klappentext stark on Susan Sontag. O waere das herb, waere das bitter, wenn die Wahrheit ist, dass ich Sontag sehr aehnlich bin!

In der Tat (falls amazon.de wirklich da recht hat) habe ich nicht verstanden, worum es in dem Buch von Philipp Felsch geht:

"Adorno, Foucault, Lyotard, Baudrillard, de Certeau, über Luhmann, Sloterdijk, Benjamin, Barthes, Bohrer[...]"

usw.

Ich habe mit alledem kein Problem. In Gegenteil, solches lese ich gern.

Nevermind.

Obwohl ich immer noch nicht weiss, was ich von diesem Prof Dr Philipp Felsch halten sollte. Obwohl ich Adorno usw gern lese, nicht mal ein Adorno kann die eigenen Fans auswaehlen.

Aber es kann (zum wiederholten Male) sein, dass es falsch waere, diesen Author nach seinem Klappentext-Author zu beurteilen.

Morons: Let's Unite Against Trump!

If you're like me -- a moron whose feelings were hurt by Secretary Tillerson's recent outburst -- then maybe together we can turn a negative incident into the rallying cry for a movement: the movement of morons united against Trump!

-- If, like me, you were hurt by the suggestion that you're somehow similar to Donald Trump just because you're a moron;

-- If you're tired of people assuming, just because you're a moron, that you support Trump, or that you somehow can't see through Trump's nonsense;

-- If you find it insulting that people think, just because you're a moron, that that means that maybe you think that global warming is a Chinese hoax, or that the US needs 10 times more nuclear weapons;

-- If you are often confused by machines like TV remotes or microwave ovens or can openers;

-- If you have accidentally hit yourself with a hammer or accidentally buried your own face in dirt within the last week;

... Ummm ...

... Okay, okay -- if you're like that, and stuff, then join with me! I'm proud to be a moron who sees right through Trump! If you are too, then send a link to this post to every moron you know! Together we can save the world against coal and nuclear weapons and horrible orange fake tans! Ummm... okay -- together we can get the Republicans to remove him from office and to stand up to Steve Bannon! No, this doesn't mean that suddenly Republicans will be cool, but they'll go back to being the normal sort of Republican jerks we're used to instead of this nightmare! It's a nightmare for them too, that's obvious! Every now and then the nightmare becomes too much for one of them and they call Trump a moron or something, and our feelings are hurt, we morons.

But even we morons know that there's only one thing you have to do to make a nightmare stop: WAKE UP!!!! Together, maybe we morons can convince Republicans to act as if they weren't zombies, and stuff!

And Now For No Reason, Pictures of Moto Guzzis

Tillerson Owes Us an Apology!

As a moron, I was deeply offended and hurt when I learned that the Secretary of State called Trump a moron. I don't want to go around complaining all the time, but when you look at it objectively, we morons have a hard time now and then, trying to keep up with people who are... you know -- smart, and stuff, and we don't need additional insults like being lumped in together with the President of the United States, as if we were no more intelligent or perceptive than he is.

I know a lot of morons. Some of my closest friends and relatives are morons, it's not just me. I think I speak for morons everywhere when I say that I think that Rex Tillerson owes us all an apology, and stuff. Just now I accidentally hit myself in the hand with a hammer, and that made me fall off a ladder, and I landed flat on my back on the floor, which was flooded with water and stuff. And then a flower pot fell off of a shelf right onto my face and shattered. So I was lying there, in great physical pain, and all wet, and with my face buried in dirt. But what made me finally start to cry, lying there, was that I remembered what Tillerson said.

And that's when I decided to write this post, because I think this is really important, and stuff.

It hurts us morons enough when people claim that the people who voted for Trump are morons. But this time, Tillerson just simply went too far, and stuff.

Tom Petty

Irony: a FB user claims that it's Tom Petty's fault that his father was an alcoholic and drug addict; and that same FB user has a cover photo with the words "MY DESTINY IS MY OWN!" Yes, folks, that's irony. Unintentional irony.

30 years ago or so, Tom Petty described one of the fundamental ironies of life in this land: when you get rich and famous, all of a sudden you get lots of stuff for free, which you could easily buy now, and which you badly needed back when you couldn't afford it.

Petty was very intelligent, very perceptive, very sensitive to the plight of the poor and abused. A lot of that intelligence went into his lyrics. He also was very talented musically. This combination made for songs which touched people. Those songs made us feel as if we knew him personally. We didn't know him, but if felt as if we did. He wasn't that FB user's father, but it felt as if he was. So a lot of us feel today as if we've lost a good friend, or a father or brother or cousin.

So maybe cut us a little bit of slack for a change.

Petty was born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1950, was inspired to be a musician by Elvis and the Beatles, dropped out of high school shortly before graduation to concentrate full-time on playing in a band, and BAM! just like that, 11 or 12 years later, suddenly he could afford to buy all the Nike shoes he wanted, and he didn't even have to anymore.



It's not just millions of us listeners who have been blown away by his single "Free Fallin'" -- Petty himself said he was amazed when the song came out of him. He said it was like a bolt of lightning which came from nowhere.

Of course, it came from the same place as all of the other great songs which Petty wrote or co-wrote. Still, it just goes to show that if you work very hard for decades at something you care about, you might have moments where what you produce is so good that it even surprises you.

Not to step on yr shoes if yr favorite Tom Petty recording is something other than "Free Fallin'". There are many, many great Tom Petty recordings. I'm going to stop now. RIP, Mr Petty. And thanks.

My Response to the NFL Players Who are Kneeling During the National Anthem

Let's join them. The NBA pre-season is just getting started, and to my surprise, the NBA actually has a rule requiring all players to stand during the national anthem.

I dislike that rule. I'm with the late Molly Ivins, who said,

"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag."

I didn't know the NBA had such a rule. I think it's a restriction of free expression which violates the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. I hope NBA players start taking a knee during the national anthem -- for all of the reasons for which NFL players are kneeling, but also to protest the league's violation of their 1st Amendment rights.

Another thing I'd like to see is singers who've been invited to sing the national anthem during sporting events taking a knee when the music starts (if there is backing music), and not singing.

There's no reason why fans can't kneel along with the players. For some reason, fans booing and complaining about the protest -- and burning team jerseys and spitting on players who kneel -- are getting most of the headlines about fan reaction, but the truth is that many fans have expressed support of the players' right to free expression, with many also expressing support of the protest. And some people have decided to watch football games for the first time in their lives! Where are all the headlines about them? Those who support the protest can express it even more clearly, if they happen to be at one of the games, by kneeling and being silent as well.

And sports journalists who respect everyone's 1st Amendment rights can give some air time to fans who aren't fascist yahoos.

And there's no reason why solidarity with the protesting athletes has to be confined to sporting events. Schoolchildren could kneel and be silent as the pledge is recited in their classrooms.

And Congresspeople and Senators could kneel and be silent when the pledge is recited on Capitol Hill.

And those who feel that the President of the United States should defend people's 1st Amendment rights, and not call for them to be fired for exercising them -- after all, he did take an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" -- should add that to the long, long list of reasons why Trump should be removed from office as soon as possible, whether by impeachment and trial in Congress, or by implementing the 25th Amendment.