50 years ago today, October 6th, 1968 at the Mexico City Olympics , two American heroes said no more. Tommie Smith and John Carlos said too the entire world, we won these medals for ourselves, not for a country that oppresses us.
50 years later, we realize that progress is dormant. NFL players kneel to protest cops killing unarmed black men and women and a conniving President runs the puppet show of gasbag patriots becoming outraged. As he always does, the Grifter in Chief changed the subject to convince dummies that the kneeling by NFL players has to do with the flag and veterans and disrespect for the law enforcement that kills their brothers and sisters with no consequences. As usual, the Liar in Chief is full of shit and his cultists are just plain dumb.
In 1968 the nation was outraged. Well, white people were. Smith and Carlos were pariahs. Their lives were threatened. They had trouble finding jobs. All because of an act most people lacked the guts to even support much less try.
Time moves on. People get smarter. What once was considered deviant or treasonous becomes normal and courageous. Progress always wears down prejudice.
Except when it comes to race.
Colin Kaepernick is the modern day Smith and Carlos. He's a pariah. He's a "son of a bitch" per our President. But he has more courage than the entire cult of phony patriots has combined. Its easy to stand and sing the anthem. That takes no courage. To participate in group think is not courageous. To risk it all by standing in front of thousands and not doing what they want you to do takes guts. It has nothing to do with wars and vets and the flag and the troops. It has to do with what is right and what is wrong.
So 50 years later, Tommie Smith and John Carlos deserve admiration and our thanks, not our disdain. Colin Kaepernick deserves the same. So do the members of the military and the veterans.
As far as I see, there is only one "son of a bitch" involved. And thats the guy who jerked us back 50 years and will continue to do so another 50 years if we let him.
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