Is the NFL right?

America, Built to Last
The View from the Middle

Let me give some badly needed factual counter evidence to the fatalistic, extremist stories that are being passed around on college campuses, the Democrat party and even the NFL these days. If you just listened to them, you would think that America is a horrible place to live that hasn’t made any progress since 1776 and needs fundamental change for us to survive. According to critics and Hillary Clinton, anyone who doesn’t agree with the Democrat Party’s agenda is a bunch of racist bigots who are deplorable and irredeemable. I take offense to those charges.
While we are not perfect, I believe that The United States of America is the greatest place in the world to live and we will only get better because of the foundation that our founding fathers put together for our country. I don’t think, for example, that the words “all men are created equal” were thoughtlessly plugged into our Declaration of Independence because they just sounded good. In 1776 those words were not true in America and I believe the founders knew it. It was their hope, however, that over time we could live up to that vision.
And we have made fantastic progress toward that end since then. We fought a civil war at least in part over the issue of equal rights for all and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation to legally make that wish become a reality. But, with difficult issues like this, it takes time for legality to become reality.
In 1870 the first two Black Americans, Hiram Revels and Joseph Rainey, were elected to Congress. After some set backs and a complete dry period from 1901 to 1929, Black America truly began it’s journey. By 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act was signed, there were six African Americans in Congress. Today there are 51, which is almost 10% of the 535 members of the House and Senate. We’ve come a long way, and I expect that we will continue to make progress in the future.
Under Jim Crow, Blacks saw little justice in America as they were regularly harassed, and over 4,000 were brutally lynched. Today, while our policemen and women are accused systemic racism, the actual facts tell a different story. In 2015, law enforcement made over 11 million arrests and only 965 of those arrests, .0086% or one in every 11,674, ended in a fatality. Only 90 of those deadly shootings were of unarmed people (one out of every 125,166) and 36 of those were black males. 36 of 90 is 40% of the total while black men represent only 13% of the male population in America, so there is a discrepancy. While prejudice is a factor in that discrepancy, it is not the only factor, so solutions need to address more that just racism in our law enforcement.
I will bet that these numbers shocked most people, in a positive way. With all the emotion over this issue most people would guess that there were 900 fatal unarmed shootings, not 90, and 360 Black males killed, not 36. And 2016 brought us even better news. In 2016 the number of unarmed black males killed by police was down to just 16. I don’t want to be insensitive by calling this “better news” and saying “just” 16 unarmed Black males were killed by police. Every life is precious. Each of these deaths is tragic, but this also represents progress, not an epidemic. BTW – most of all unarmed shooting victims were resisting arrest or fleeing police, which is another lesson.
Finally, the NFL needs some fact checkers on their staffs. They not only should check out the real figures as I have outlined them above, but they need to realize that 72% of Americans think that kneeling for the National Anthem is unpatriotic. These are the people who fill the stands each week or watch games on TV. It is a big industry, but no business can alienate its customer base with impunity and survive. Ratings are down and will continue to decline until the NFL figures out how to address the issue and celebrate the country at the same time.
Maybe the Cowboys are on to something. The team knelt BEFORE the anthem and then stood for it. They still got booed when they knelt, but got applauded when they stood. Bottom line, the NFL needs to become about football again and maybe the Cowboys can be America’s team again by leading the way through this issue.
I didn’t write this article because I think that America is perfect or that we have experienced total harmony of the races. I write this to bring some balance to this discussion. I believe that America today is the best place to live in this world and even at any time in its history. Because of our foundation, we have made great progress over the years and I have no doubt that we will make more in the future. I have great confidence in the vast majority of the American people who are united behind the concepts of equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all people.
We all need to ignore the emotionally charged, vitriolic rhetoric of the extremists who are trying to tear this country apart for their own selfish purposes, and listen to the good hearts of the average American. We need to stop the finger pointing and focus on solutions, and for that just watch my video entitled – Race in America, Solutions. Here is a link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kVsN7TO-XU.