I Completely Agree ... But

It is certainly no secrete that we have, in the USA, a serious problem regarding social and racial inequality, and I agree there should be no harm in publicly acknowledging this fact.  Our constitution's second amendment does indeed afford us protection, as stated below.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

 Some of the professional athletes, of late, are trying to draw attention to these stark inequalities in our society, and that is a good thing.  However, showing outright disrespect concerning our national symbols, like our flag, and the national anthem, is not the right way to go about.  Since a very long time people, historically, have always stood up straight, with one hand over the heart, while our anthem was played.  President Obama, apparently, may have been the exception, on at least one occasion, when he was seen, on TV, having his hands folded below his navel area, while the anthem was played, or the pledge of allegiance was spoken.

We should also consider the millions of Americans, our brothers and sisters, who have given their lives, in a number of wars, carrying these symbols in their hearts, and our flag into battles.  How can anybody show utter disrespect for our national symbols, in light of all these sacrifices?

In my opinion, it is certainly disingenuous, on the part of these athletes to decry social inequalities, when they themselves are part of the problem.  Together with their owners, they are guilty of indirectly stealing great sums of money, from mostly working people, who in many cases live from paycheck to paycheck.  In defense of the owners, I must acknowledge that they are practically forced into gouging the public because of the high fees/salaries demanded by their players.  These astronomical salaries far exceed what they should receive for their services.  I venture to say these players are not any better than the players of old, who, by the way, performed mostly without the use of drugs, and for a lot less money.

I would not be surprised that buying tickets to sporting events, today, will often result in shortchanging the needs of families.  These athletes, apparently, have no problem with this; the money they carry to the banks is saturated with blood, sweat and tears of the working people, no doubt. Whenever I watch their self-righteous performance on the national news networks, I smell a strong odor of hypocrisy.   If they really care about our social inequity, why don’t they donate 50% of their inflated salaries to help minimize this social problem?

Their donations could also help in minimizing racial inequalities, by building better schools in mostly black areas, finance clinics to provide better healthcare, and ensure all people of color, and others in inner cities, have at least one good meal a day.

Their public performance cost them nothing; to the contrary, it gives them top billing on national television that normally would cost in the thousands of dollars.  These players, while exercising their first amendment rights, are doing so in a very disrespectful, hurtful, and insulting manner, while at the same time providing a bad example for our young people of today.

Myself, I stopped going to the games a long time ago, when I saw the extreme greed attached to these events; these professional sports, today, act like a cancer feeding on the host, the public.   They forget that when the host eventually dies, they also perish.