close

A right to protest

3 min read
article image -

Neal Roth’s Friday letter to the editor makes a number of claims, and displayed a very fuzzy view of the facts.

For example, he repeats a common social media meme by stating, “In the case of the NFL, the behavior of players on the field during the national anthem is defined by the NFL. This behavior has also been agreed to by the players’ union. The manual states, ‘Players on the field and bench should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking.'”

It’s very interesting, but entirely false. The online memes even state the supposed “page numbers” in the NFL Game Operations Manual. But those pages say nothing at all about the national anthem. They relate to fouls committed on the field during play.

During the rest of his piece, Roth wandered into a number of other areas, with varying degrees of accuracy. For example, he claimed that “Tim Tebow was punished every time he scored and then prayed and pointed to the heavens.” I cannot find anything to support that statement; it apparently is untrue. I should mention, though, that on Sept. 29, 2014, after Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah, a Muslim, intercepted a Tom Brady pass and returned it for a touchdown, he fell to his knees and bowed his head to the ground in thankful prayer. He was slapped with a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. The league quickly conceded the punishment was wrong.

An even more outrageous statement by Roth was that the First Amendment doesn’t apply for NFL players, because the silent protests are “in a workplace.” Is it not beyond logic to say that a stadium with 70,000 fans in attendance, and viewed by many millions more, is “a workplace and not in public?”

The fact is that the players have been protesting only one thing, racial injustice, which frankly thrives very well within our country. They have not been protesting the military, and not veterans. I am a member of a number of veterans pages on social media, and what those members say is that we vets served for the whole Constitution, including a person’s right to protest. We did not serve to deny them that right.

Americans should stand and salute when they want to, not when they are “supposed to.”

Joseph Bogo

Avella

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today