Protesting during NFL games inappropriate

The cardinal sin at any job is to offend a customer. The average worker is forbidden by their employer to make political statements while at the work site or while attending a company function. Employers cannot afford and will not tolerate acts by their staff that offend customers because the loss of customers affects everyone. The NFL has normally discouraged teams from showing individual expression on the field. The league prevented the Dallas Cowboys in 2016 from wearing stickers on the backs of their helmets honoring slain Dallas police officers during the games, but they could wear the stickers during training camp.

Protesting at the game while the national anthem is played offends many people. Those people are now engaging in their own form of protest. Viewership has not plummeted, but it is down. If a portion of ticket sales or sales of paraphernalia drops, or if sponsors realize that supporting the NFL now costs them customers, there will be cutbacks. Ironically, it could be the people the kneeling players want to help who will be hurt. We need to avoid that. If the NFL players want to protest, that is their right, However, is it their right to protest during a game? 

With great support from all races, we abolished slavery, passed the bipartisan Civil Rights Act with major support from the general public, created affirmative action and legislated against hate crimes. People of color are found in all endeavors, not just sports and the performing arts. Everywhere you go, you see people of color in leadership positions. We twice elected a black president, and interracial relationships are quite common. If you want to be loved by everybody, you will fail. But if you want to be respected by honest people, just remember the Golden Rule. 

Wes Hibbert, Loudon

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Defacing Confederate monument disgraceful

I sympathize with those who would like to remove monuments to prominent Confederate figures. However, I do find defacement of such monuments inappropriate. Any decision to remove them should be based on an orderly, open and transparent public process. The decision should be based on the will of the majority, not threats.

However, I do not sympathize with those who vandalized the Confederate monument in Fort Sanders. Their actions are disgraceful. Read about the Battle of Fort Sanders, and reflect on the post-battle actions of the Union forces. The battle was an assault by Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet on a Union position under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Longstreet ordered an assault on a section of the Union line he thought was weak. He was wrong, and the Confederate troops suffered a significant defeat, leaving many men dead and dying on the battlefield. Without a temporary truce, many of the wounded would have died in no man’s land. I suspect that many of the monument’s detractors would find that to be a good outcome, but not the Union army, which had not lost its humanity. Burnside offered a truce so Confederate troops could come forward and retrieve their dead and wounded. Union troops even gathered up rebel dead within their lines and placed them in no man’s land.



I strongly believe that most of those Union troops would have no issue with a statue representing Confederate soldiers who fought in the battle and would find any defacement to it to be repugnant. As a veteran, I would agree with that sentiment.

James Shurskis, Loudon

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