On the weekend of September 22nd through September 24th, yet more controversy coming out of the White House. The 70-year old man who is supposed to be leading our country calls NFL players who kneel during the national anthem "sons of bitches" and follows up with tweets stating that if the players do not stand “YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
The next day, the same 70-year old man who is supposed to be leading our country calls out Golden State Warriors star player Steph Curry, tweeting that since Curry is “hesitating” on an invitation to the White House to congratulate the Warriors on their NBA championship win, Curry’s “invitation is withdrawn.”
A couple of things. First, all 28 NFL teams had at least one or more players AND OWNERS either kneeling or locking arms in unity during the playing of the national anthem or the entire team did not even come out onto the field until after the anthem was played. Second, Curry had already declined the invitation to the White House before it was “withdrawn” and NBA players throughout the league, especially LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavs, stood behind Curry’s decision. (Side note, I’m a HUGE Cavs fan so applauding anything Steph Curry does — which I do in this particular case — makes me throw up a little in my mouth but there you have it.)
But I don’t want this article to be about first amendment rights or turning down a prom invite. So what’s my point here?
My point is that, while the above is more than disturbing on so many levels, there are SO MANY other more important issues that we should be focusing on:
Puerto Rico just suffered one of the worst hurricanes in history and 3 million plus people are still without power, water, gas and countless other basic living essentials. Florida and Texas are also still trying to recover.
White supremacist groups, encouraged by comments calling them "very fine people," are becoming more vocal and are beginning to target college campuses.
The Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill is looming over us and could potentially leave millions of Americans without insurance and remove coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
Hundreds of thousands of DREAMers have been threatened with deportation to countries that they have never known.
In a time where war seems more and more in our very immediate future, transgender troops are being discriminated against and told that their service is no longer required.
There is more and more frightening evidence of Russian interference in our election.
I think I counted at least 2 instances of shootings in high schools in the past couple of weeks.
Still no clean water in Flint, Michigan.
And I could go on and on and on.
I guess what I’m trying to say is there are countless terrible things happening in this country and we should not allow ourselves to be distracted by early morning tweets.
FOCUS.