The meaningful change I would like to see would be Rapinoe getting cut. Like Trump said about Kaepernick, maybe another country would work better for her.
I respectfully disagree. I think Rapinoe has every right to express herself against the US Flag. I personally don't really stand during the National Anthem because of what the early settlers did to my Lakota family. Now we are facing a huge problem with the Dakota pipeline being built and causing the natural water source to be contaminated in the future. I'm sorry but its' personally hard for me to be patriotic when US doesn't give a crap about Native Americans. Rapinoe takes a stand or in this case a kneel for gay rights and injustice. I think that's our right to do this. I support her but it's okay if you disagree.
Yes but from the sound of it ur making ur protest when u r a fan attending some event where the anthem is played. Rapinoe is at work, disobeying the wishes of her employer, using that employer to get the audience for her protest and completely ignoring any detrimental effects to that employer.
Regarding Rapinoe's stance of kneeling during the anthem while wearing the crest. Many people here in the USA can't get passed the act, especially when she is supposed to be representing the USA. She will not get people to open their minds and talk when they feel disrespected. It doesn't matter if it's your right, it is perceived by many to be an insult. What makes matters worse is that she stood for the Thailand anthem, a country where there are known human rights violations. If an ambassador of a country is attempting to open a relationship with a foreign country they wouldn't begin by insulting their customs. The foreign country will never come to the table or give you a chance for dialogue. If she felt a need to make a statement, she could have simply turned down the call-up.
Act of courage? That's ridiculous.. She has stood for thousands of anthems She only found "courage" after numerous other athletes acted first. She is simply bandwagoning for attention. Like the office of the Presidency, the flag and the anthem are diserving of respect regardless of your agreeing with positions. What people who think this is ok fail to understand is that the flag and anthem do not represent politicians or political policies. The flag and anthem represent an idea, a belief, a shared acceptance among the citizenry. We are America. America is us. When Rapinoe fails to respect the anthem, she is disrespecting every single one of us that share the idea of America.
It was also interesting that when Rapinoe came in it was mostly cheers with some boos mixed in. U never here that at a home WNT match
I am loath to turn N&A into a political discussion. But Billy raises an important point that deserves discussion. America has been very good to me. Because I was born in America, in the particular place/family/social class I was, I've had opportunities that I would not have had in most other places. However, many Americans have not had these opportunities, and so don't really see the we in your quote. Like say some of my spouse's Native American relatives who have been systematically discriminated against since the founding the country. Or Latinos who are told to go back to Mexico despite the fact that their families have lived in Texas for hundreds of years (and many of them also had their land sized). The we in America is complicated. Billy quotes our ideal, of America where all are represented and where America believes in everyone who believes in the American ideal. E plubis unim unfortunately isn't the reality for everyone. Protesting the anthem is a provocative statement. Legally, I think the Fed could impose sanctions, as the USSF is not a governmental organization like say a state college. However, the USSF would be foolish to do so given the realities noted above, particularly given how contested the issue is and that this would make the Fed appear to be taking a political side. I think sanctioning Rapinoe would make the issue far more devisive than it is already. Finally, from a player pool perspective, I'm uncertain that Rapinoe will be on the roster in 2019 in any case, given her injury history and age. But she should be selected or not on ability rather than her politics.
When Rapinoe came in the Thailand game I heard about as many -- maybe more -- cheers for her than for Alex Morgan. There were a lot of people in the stands who apparently didn't feel "disrespected."
Yes...I saw a twitter poll by Caitlyn Murray where at the time 57% who voted supported Pinoe's right to protest , 17% didnt care and 16% disagreed with what she was doing. Hardly a referendum. At the game however u r preaching to the choir. I would guess anyone opposed to Rapinoes recent actions might have staged their own protest by not attending the game. I wonder if USSF thinks the low attendance was partially do to Rapinoes protests?
There is no reason for the USSF to take a public stand on anything. When players r disciplined in a team environment it is generally done in house not with a media event. Should Ellis chose to not use Rapinoe vs The Netherlands it will be seen as discipline without making a production of it. If the protests continue maybe Ellis doesnt call her into the next camp.
The question Rapinoe needs to ask herself at this point is has she lost sight of her goals? Originally she was trying to raise awareness on what I consider a major issue in this country. Now she did manage to generate a lot of discussion but how much of it is actually about whether there r racial overtones to the high number of police related deaths in recent years. From what Ive seen myself, maybe 10% of the discourse is on the topic Rapinoe originally targeted. Maybe another 15% r discussing whether Rapinoe being gay is a bigger issue with dissenters than the protest itself. The other 75% of the discussion is about whether Rapinoes form of protest is un-American or not. Now Im pretty sure those percentages arent what she was willing to risk her job over but I have to wonder if she hasnt reached the point where she doesnt feel she can back down even though this protest has gone on a tangent.
According to SportsTVRatings, the match against Thailand on ESPN2 drew an estimated audience of 266,000 (134,000 in the 18-49 demographic group). This audience was dwarfed, of course, by NFL football and other NFL-related programs (pre-game shows for instance), but it seems like a pretty good number. It seemed a busy cable sports day with several programs bringing in over 500,000. The match against Thailand came in around 25th among cable sports programs for the day. One interesting comparison: baseball on the MLB Network. The time slot for the Yankees vs Red Sox / Tampa Bay vs Baltimore drew 100, 000 more (367,000) but lagged behind the women's soccer game in the 18-49 age group (93,000) Source: SportsTVRatings
The bigger issue now is that she shows that she is just a hypocritical, glory seeking arse-hole. She wants people to look at her, see her, and make a big deal of her. If she REALLY felt the US treated her/her 'people' badly, she would never represent her country in a match. She is just like the rest of these idiots; they want attention to them and aren't really looking to make a real change.
The whole idea with protest is to get as many as possible to notice. There are levels of disagreements between, "all is fine I have no objections" and "this is terrible I can't have any part of it".
You don't address the issues that I posted. Her supposed protest is that she won't stand for the Anthem because she doesn't want to support a country that "doesn't treat people like her well". Wearing the uniform of your country is EXACTLY representing your country. Of course, she doesn't want to miss playing for her country (and that big check), so she is a complete hypocrite (just like the rest of the folks who are doing this. They want people to look at them, period.
Ur free to kill the young, the poor, minorities if you do it in a police uniform-- it probably will end just fine for you. Unless, of course, athletes threaten that freedom by not standing up when u think they should, and calling attention to ur marksmanship...
I agree with most of what you wrote in your post (to the point that I repped it, as you can notice), but, sorry, the Latin teacher in me (I really am) can't help correcting you: it's "E pluribus unum".
Not to jar you out of your bubble, but no, no it isn't. Some of it is crap, but some of it isn't. That's the part that gives the protest validity.
Not bothering to understand and educate yourself that people in America all don't have the same rights (by ACTUAL laws and systemic bigotry) and are thus treated differently is what's actually total crap. Since you are clearly unaware, here's an example from this summer. The house GOP voted down equal rights for the LGBT community days after Orlando. THAT'S TOTAL CRAP. http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-acti...eaders-block-lgbt-vote-after-orlando-shooting