Taking a Second Knee: The NFL and Mr.

Trump
Frank Kaufmann,
September 27, 2017

Traditionally kneeling on one knee is a posture of humility one assumes

reverentially while receiving recognition and highest honor for exceptional
achievement. The best known such occasion is the rare, elegant, and lofty
moment of knighthood.
Kneeling on both knees, traditionally is understood as a position of prayer, of
petition to the loving God of all, asking blessings for others.
So, I take a second knee.
My prayer is for my country, and for those who have paid the ultimate price for
me and for my family, and for the families who live with unspeakable loss of
children and family members who have fallen for my freedoms. My prayer is also
for all who pay a price in so many other ways, for nurses, for firemen and women,
for construction workers, priests and imams, for business owners, and all my
fellow brothers and sisters interwoven in daily life together.
My prayer is for the victims of racism, victims of abuse, injustice, and inequality,
for ethnic minorities, for women, slaves, for all rendered powerless against greed,
whimsy, and evil, demonic designs. I am sorry and pained by the persistence of
racism, and other vile perpetration of inequality against my fellow Americans. I
pray that all people of every color and ethnicity from black to white, and
everything in between, who battle valiantly in solidarity across racial and ethnic
lines to banish evil, and build a land of true equality.

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I pray for the young atheletes who have trained on lonely paths from very young,
missing much of childhoods delights, in their noble efforts to become exceptional
and thrilling to watch. I am sorry that so many are dragged into a public space so
distasteful and acid.
So, I bend a second knee.
The take a knee protests plaguing the NFL and the national fabric presently
originated neither in traditions of valor and chivalry (such as in knightings), nor in
the ubiquitous traditions of spirituality (such as in prayer). Rather they originated
in the fact that Mr. Kaepernick sitting down while all others stood to honor their
country, looked kind of goofy and slovenly. He was just some guy sitting down,
and as such just sitting there could not meet Mr. Kaepernicks obsessive attention-
seeking, always a quality of his, even long before his crusade for racial justice in
America.
Ironically or tragically, the take a knee folly plaguing the NFL and our nation is
harming the cause which originally sparked Mr. Kaepernick to publicly disrespect
his country and his fans. His cause is important beyond words, a crusade to
diminish the frequency of, and ultimately obstruct the possibility of police
brutality, and possibly more importantly to take a good hard look, and where
needed fully reform any dimensions of Americas criminal justice system that
uniquely disadvantage any demographic group based on race or ethnicity. This
cause, ultimately must prevail and be shouted from the roof-tops. It must
fearlessly march toward that third rail, the persistence of racism in America. The
tragedy or irony to which I refer is that the protests have shifted
attention away from these horrifying realities in American life, and instead have
made of this all important issue, more of the tired, shallow, vacuous, meaningless
blah that continues to drag our nation further and further into dangerous and self-
defeating division. This makes me sad.
The solidarity-knee-taking that wild-fired last week was not publicly
communicated as solidarity with the core cause that Mr. Kaepernick was
refashioned into championing. It was communicated as team solidarity, and the
secondary championing of Americans right to protest. This chest pounding is
in important ways a distraction from the much more important and serious
problem of racism in America.
Add President Trump into the equation and the distraction is complete. This makes
me sad.
In response, I write to make an appeal to every American. Please refuse to play
the game. Do not contribute to divisiveness in America. This hurts us. Please do
not allow profit seeking media and social nets to suck you in, and gin you up.
There is no fight. There is nothing to discuss. I am quite sure that the vast
majority of us lead highly interracial lives. We all might have biases and
prejudices, but we are not content with that. We are happy even grateful to work
on getting better, transcending our histories, and our own mistakes. We are

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grateful for our friends of many races who help us see possibly even horrible
things about ourselves, and things we long to improve.
Here are some of the realities driving this conversation that media, and people
seeking our attention for selling ads are exploiting, exacerbating, and pouring gas
on.
1. Is there racism in America? Yes
2. Are there occasions of police brutality? Yes
3. Does the criminal justice system in America disadvantage certain racial and
ethnic groups? Probably yes.
4. Do athletes and entertainers have the right to protest social ills, and promote
causes that are important to them? Yes
5. Is it OK not to patronize stores, industries, and entertainers who do things that
are distasteful to you? Yes
6. Is the President of the United States permitted to have and express opinions on
things? Yes
7. Do Americans have to agree with the President of the United States? No
I think were all in the same general ball park on this list. So the solution should be
simple enough, and we should flat out refuse to be whipped up into hating or
disrespecting one another:
1. People who are sensitive to the problems of racism in America should invest
sacrificially, and by all means possible to improve the situation
2. Public figures who have concerns about various social or political issues should
make their views known, if they like
3. People who are offended by entertainers, industries and corporations, and other
profit seeking entities should not patronize them.
Problem solved.
The National Anthem while performed at US sporting events is important at deep
and even emotional levels to a great many Americans. Players who choose not to
properly honor the Anthem, and all that it implies, will greatly hurt the sport, and
in doing so hurt many of their friends and teammates. Are they free to do so? Of
course they are. If they persist, support for the sport will decline. OK. Thats ok.
This is not the end of the world. A great many of us rediscovered the heart-
warming beauty of the minors, and local sandlot ball during the MLB strike. The
same will happen to football.
It seems weekly NFL viewership presently is between 1517 million viewers
weekly. NFL salaries top (so far) at 24 million dollars a year, and if you go down
500 players, youre still over 3 million a year.
What if the league cannot solve the take a knee problem, and fans decide to
abandon the sport? What if viewership dropped to 5 or 8 million viewers a week?

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What if top salaries dropped all the way down to 12 million dollars a year? That
should be ok, I think? I think 12 million dollars a year is ok. No?
Please do your part to help solve the problem of racism in the country at large,
and in the criminal justice system. Please stop watching the NFL if the actions of
the players and owners offend you. Please protest if you think this helps anything.
And so, I think were all good here.
Please do not let bloodsuckers in MSM and social nets gin up hatred, anger, and
division in your heart, and in our nation.
Let us pray.