Let’s get a few things straight. Telling an employee that he or she can’t do something while on the job is not a violation of his or her First Amendment rights. It wouldn’t be censorship if the NFL came out with a ruling that mandated the following: “There will not be any political protests at football games.” (PJ Media) In fact, the NFL has such rules already in place, and when a player signs a contract with the team, he is agreeing to follow those rules.

The NFL is not the government. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), an elected official, does not understand this. She “took a knee on the floor of the House tonight during a special order by the Congressional Black Caucus focused on rooting out racism and defending the First Amendment.” She took an oath to uphold the Constitution that she does not understand.

There are already rules prohibiting certain types of on-field displays. For example, in the first week of the 2016 season, Antonio Brown was called “for a ‘sexually suggestive’ end zone dance (he twerked) and the celebration cost him” a 15-yard penalty and a fine of “somewhere around $10,000.”

The Star-Spangled Banner may be an issue for some people, and they have a right to protest its history for whatever reason,1 but it’s almost a guarantee that the National Anthem means something deep and important to the vast majority of Americans who sing and appreciate it that has nothing to do with the War of 1812 with Great Britain or slavery.

Lady Gaga performed a wonderful rendition of the National Anthem at the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show. I suspect that most older Americans had no idea who she was, but I can guarantee you that they appreciated her rendition more than they did Roseanne Barr’s.

Usain Bolt, a citizen of Jamaica, the current world record holder in the 100 and 200 meters, stopped an interview when he heard our National Anthem being played during an award ceremony and turned and faced the podium where the athletes were standing:

Protesting athletes are making these statements about race as if there has not been any progress in race relations in the United since the 1860s to the 1960s. The majority of the players in the NFL (68%) and NBA (74.4%) are black. They are multi-millionaires. LeBron James, who has been vocal in his support for the kneeling protests, “has an estimated net worth in the range of $400 million, and he is on his way to becoming one of the wealthiest athletes ever.”

Race is still an issue in our country, but I can guarantee that these protests won’t do a single thing for the people that these athletes claim they are trying to help. The cumulative amount of money that these black athletes make is in the billions and the government probably takes at least 40 percent in taxes. LeBron decided not to go to New York to play and instead went to Miami because of the taxes. Florida does not have a state income tax.

Stephen Curry, who plays for the Golden State Warriors, “will set an NBA record by making $34.7 million for the 2017-18 season.” Of that amount, he will pay $11,655,683 in Federal taxes. That works out to nearly 34%. He’ll also pay $4,105,453 in city and state taxes (11.84%).

This is theft, but since most blacks are Democrats and vote for Democrats, they believe their money is going to a good political cause. But it’s been Democrat policies that have trapped blacks in a cage of dependency, a form of political slavery to a political party and ultimately to the State.

If these professional athletes put their considerable money muscle behind stopping these statist policies they would get back hundreds of millions of dollars. They could take that money and invest it in minority neighborhoods. Not give it away, but invest it by starting businesses, building private schools that teach job skills, entrepreneurship, and how out-of-wedlock births are devastating to young women.

It’s not whites who are killing blacks in Chicago. Some of the worst neighborhoods in the United States are run by long-time Democrat regimes. Government is the problem. Moral training, education, and teaching job skills are the solution. These millionaires don’t need government to get involved. Accept the challenge and responsibility.

Let’s not forget abortion. A much higher percentage of abortions take place among blacks. Once again, the Democrat Party is on the front lines of support for killing unborn black babies. Voting people like Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee out of office would also help.

Taking a knee at a sporting event will do nothing to fix what’s wrong in the black community.

1. The controversy is about this line from the third stanza: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.” Some have argued that the Star-Spangled Banner “promotes slavery.” However the line is understood, it is not promoting slavery. Here’s one interpretation: “The Star-Spangled Banner lyrics ‘the hireling’ refers to the British use of Mercenaries (German Hessians) in the American War of Independence ‘…and slave’ is a direct reference to the British practice of Impressment (kidnapping American seamen and forcing them into service on British man-of warships). This was an important cause of the War of 1812.” Consider this understanding of the use of the word “slave” written by Walter Olson in National Review: Francis Scott Key “was from a slaveholding family and litigated many cases involving slavery issues; he argued numerous cases in favor of slaves’ freedom, but also prosecuted a prominent abolitionist…. At the time Key was writing, the word ‘slave’ … had long functioned in English as a wide-ranging epithet, hurled at persons of any and all colors, nationalities, and conditions of servitude or otherwise…. There’s no record of him ever explaining why he chose those words.” We use the word “slave” in various ways today that has nothing to do with chattel slavery: “That person is a slave to his passions… She’s a slave to fashion… He’s a slave to the State… Government welfare programs have turned people into political slaves.” [↩]