Reader: What would happen if high school football players kneeled during the anthem?
Freedom (and kneeling) has consequences
From my youth, the worst interaction with the public would be to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater.
Would that be an infringement on my freedom of speech? What would be the consequences of a high school football player taking a knee during any activity that honors our country?
Surely somewhere in our loose interpretation of justice, the idea of a freedom has the limitation of consequences.
— Donald Matheson, Fort Worth
Jerry Jones has become Mr. Dictator
I have a great compromise to the issue with Jerry Jones dictating that his football players can’t protest before the start of a football game: How about when he returns all the taxpayers’ money used to build the stadium, then he can become Mr. Dictator of the inside of the Arlington stadium.
Until he returns every penny, he can just stand there silently while American citizens use their constitutional rights in a taxpayer-funded facility.
— Mark Bauer, Colleyville
Wrong time, wrong protest
Enough already. This total disrespect for our nation’s flag and the millions of members of the branches of the military who died defending our freedom has gone on far too long.
To say kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games it is in protest of a totally unrelated cause makes no sense. It’s the wrong place and the wrong time to air a proper grievance. The players are on “company time,” and the company that employs them — the NFL — company has the right to make the rules.
If the players are serious about their cause, then first ride along with a policeman on the night shift in a major city. If they’re still motivated after that, protest on their own time at the police station where the injustice is taking place.
I blame all of this unpatriotic behavior on gutless NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He should have nipped this in the bud following the first kneeling episode.
— Bernie Connolly, Fort Worth
Let’s look at the entry
The insistence that players toe the line for the national anthem brings to mind Ambrose Bierce’s comment on patriotism in The Devil’s Dictionary: “In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.”
— David Plazak, Arlington
Gardens are an important resource
Fort Worth ‘s forebears created our Botanic Gardens for the well-being of all residents, young and old. The gardens offer physical and mental health to everyone who is touched by their beauty, and provide tired or anxious persons a place to rest under shadowing trees.
They help us to remember who we are and what we love.
Shortage of maintenance funds was a choice that can be rectified when we have the good taste and sense to save our heritage. (Aug. 13, 1A, “Time may be running out on free admission at Fort Worth Botanic Garden”)
But if we want a few more bucks in the till, then put up a gate. And that would be a shame.
— Betty Winton Fay, Fort Worth
Children’s trauma will continue
Seeing children separated from their families at our southern border is disturbing, and knowing the science behind events like this makes the situation all the more unbearable.
Forced separations are extremely stressful, and high levels of uncontrollable stress can be toxic, perhaps especially in childhood.
Toxic stress is detrimental to children’s brain development, potentially causing lifelong negative effects. Children who experience toxic stress may have diminished capacity for self-regulation, putting them at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties. Other effects include chronic immune activation, which can cause the body to contract diseases rather than protect itself.
We can mitigate the damage that has already been done by our policies and practices, but to do so we must ensure not only that reunions take place as soon as possible but also that the children and their parents receive therapeutic help in reconnecting and recovering from the trauma they have experienced.
— Eugene Nandwa, Washington, D.C
This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 2:58 PM.