Watching the now weekly spectacle of football players bending their knees in protest when the National Anthem is played makes me wonder if they have ever given a scintilla of thought to the bended knees of broken women as they are sold in the slave markets of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and now Turkey, where "the Islamic State has merely transferred its slave business into Turkey – including a market in Turkey's capital Ankara.  This means ISIS is involved in the slavery industry in a European country."  Moreover, does Kaepernick know that black Africans owning other black Africans has existed in Mauritania for generations and continues to this day?

Has he ever read the searing accounts by North Koreans describing the misery of life in that totalitarian regime?  Do his football buddies shed tears for the murder of North Koreans who defect and are shot by their own government, as happened the other day?  When these helmeted athletes speak of injustice, do the names Farzana Iqbal and Samia Imran come to mind?  These Pakistani women were "honor-killed" by members of their own family because they dared to marry men of their own choosing.  Samia's mother carried out the murder of her own daughter, while Farzana was stoned to death by twelve male relatives, including her father, brothers, and cousins.  No one was prosecuted for these heinous crimes.

I dare Colin and his partners on the football field to rail against this ongoing racism, injustice, and evil.

Have these players ever spoken out about the decimation of young blacks in the streets of Chicago, where gangs rule?  If they are truly interested in helping, why not work to get the corrupt Democrat machinery out of the inner cities and finally clean up the urban ghettoes so mothers can wheel their baby carriages without fear of being caught in a drive-by shooting?

I wonder as I look in disbelief if these players, who are generally selected more for their brawn than for their brains, even understand what they are doing.  According to Doreen S. Felix over at the New Yorker the kneel, having symbolized a protest directed at alleged police brutality against black Americans, has morphed into outright opposition to Trump or even just a gesture "of free speech itself."  Then again..."it's a reaction to Trump's 'buck-breaking' rhetoric," or it's "about broken alliances, presumably between the team owners, many of whom donated to the Trump campaign," and finally, "it has become 'about the pride of the N.F.L.'" 

In the muddled minds of these men who make millions of dollars throwing a ball around, it is breathtaking to see how they squander what could be their finest moment.  It is a disgrace on so many fronts.  The only apparent effect of all this knee-bending is that the NFL has lost one million viewers.

A New York Times article by Billy Witz highlights that "Kaepernick was ... cleaning up a mess of his own ... when photos surfaced of him wearing socks ... that featured cartoon pigs wearing policeman's caps."  But is this really a surprise, given that his "conversion to social activism occurred once he began dating activist DJ Nessa Diab, who has frequently spoken about perceived racial injustices and 'Islamophobia' in the U.S."?  Diab is an ardent supporter of Black Lives Matter and Muslim activism.  Could one say a vulnerable football player just got played by a savvy operator? 

Black Lives Matter "was founded by Marxist revolutionaries in 2013, and is a movement that depicts the United States as a nation awash in racism, sexism, and homophobia. Demonstrators at BLM events routinely smear white police as trigger-happy bigots who are intent upon killing innocent, unarmed black males; taunt, and direct obscenities at uniformed police officers who are on duty; throw rocks at police and threaten to kill them; and celebrate in the streets when a police officer is killed."  Moreover, the movement has aligned itself with the designated terrorist group Hamas, so it is patently hypocritical that a group that claims to seek justice would smear Israel with the accusation of genocide and apartheid.  Kaepernick needs to be reminded that in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can almost be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.

Are Kaepernick and company aware of the actual Islamic gender apartheid that is a real war against one half of the human population?  Do these athletes even understand that to be branded with "Islamophobia" is to censure those who utter criticism against the heinous actions against women?  Where is their genuine outrage as opposed to their pseudo-fury?  Instead, they fall for those who look the other way as the "pernicious patriarchy of the Muslim world is increasingly introduced into the West."

To proclaim that he "loves America" makes Kaepernick disingenuous at best.

Abject ignorance and hateful ideology seem to have insinuated their way into the professional athletic leagues.  Instead of doing something truly meaningful, these players grandstand.  But as Daniel Greenfield notes, "[d]ozens of NFL players are arrested every year on charges ranging from murder to rape to animal abuse."  In fact,  "2017 was a banner year for the NFL with three times as many arrests as last year. Along with the usual drunk driving and disorderly conduct arrests, there were 7 arrests for assault/battery, 6 for drugs and 5 for domestic violence."  And these are the role models of America!

And finally, many of these men, the heirs of genuinely courageous black men, need to be reminded of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, composed of freed black slaves who, during the Civil War, under the command of Robert Gould Shaw were willing to face death in the fight for freedom.  The "Massachusetts 54th Regiment became famous and solidified their place in history following the attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July 18, 1863. At least 74 enlisted men and 3 officers were killed in that battle, and scores more were wounded. Colonel Shaw was one of those killed. Sergeant William H. Carney, who was severely injured in the battle, saved the regiment's flag from being captured. He was the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor." In fact, in the last two years of the Civil War, "it is estimated that over 180,000 African Americans served in the Union forces and were instrumental to the Union's victory."

This knee-bending is an affront to the memory of these black Americans who understood what real struggle was and that it was only in America that the dream of freedom could be obtained.

Not only is it pathetic, but it is sad that these athletes squander power that could really be used to improve rather than to destroy.  For shame.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.