Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrapper1
With all of the attention on player protests during the national anthem recently, have you ever had to deal with this at a game? What would you do, if anything, if a player (or team) took a knee during the anthem?
This happened in my area last season and the school stopped playing the anthem before games.
I've had officials tell me that if a team took a knee, they would refuse to officiate the game and leave the venue.
So, has this happened in one of your games? What would/did you do in such a situation?
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Here's a couple of random thoughts....
1) Free speech generally protects an individual from government interference with that speech. Where i am the overwhelming majority of schools are public school and are part of the government. While schools can get involved with free speech issues more than other governments, i am contracted by that entity and will not do anything that will expand or detract from my contractual responsibilities or make the situation worse because I am a contractor.
2) Although i might disagree with the tactics... and although what I see as disrespect pains me and disturbs me and .. I wonder how many many of these individuals truly understand what is means to be free or if they understand how privileged they are compared to the rest of the world....
but at the end of the day I know that as someone who has served in the oldest military organization in the country for nearly 39 years, someone who has taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution, an oath that pledges even my life in its defense that in part its been me that has answered the call of this country to ensure that they have the ability to protest in this manner.
Are there problems with the country? Yep... are we perfect? Nope! But we have it better than many across the world. Much of the controversy is generated because we have little respect for each other... if we worked on respect for each other.... if we showed respect for the flag and our respected institutions we may be able to come together to resolve our differences.
I am a defender of of their peaceful right to protest no matter how much it pains me.