Delta 2874

To Nashville. 

Delayed an hour. 

But they gave us a drink.

In first class. 

I would rather have been on time. 

But the scotch was good. 

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The Flag On An Ass

I think a professional football player has the right to express his beliefs.

If, in tandem – either directly related, or coincidental – his performance goes to hell, I believe that he is subject to being fired.

With no questions asked.

It doesn't seem that Colin Kaepernick’s plight is an example of that set of circumstances.

He chose not to stand as a method of calling attention (as if such a thing were needed) to the nasty hooks of slavery that still have their barbs directly imbedded in 21st Century America.

And then he went and played at a clearly acceptable level as an NFL quarterback.

And now he is unemployed.

Seems to me that the gutless and/or bigoted old white men who own the NFL are indulging in an en masse  firing.

En masse in the sense of one person being fired by his total potential employer base.

As a Bernie supporter I guess I’m even less interested in the NFL than I already was.

I could get excited about the Seahawks once in a while.

But I really couldn’t care less about them now in the face of rampant trumpism in the NFL.

All of that was just a fairly boring prologue to what is really on my mind.

In the massive hoorah surrounding Kaepernick I have heard never ending, boring, interviews of outraged white men.

And they all bring up the same thing: Kaepernick is disrespecting the flag.

So sitting during a song that mentions the flag is disrespect to the flag.

I won’t argue the ridiculousness of that viewpoint.

But I will bring up something that has bothered me for years.

Burning the flag is decried by the same sort that decry Kaepernick’s protest.

They say it is desecration.

Actually it is the preferred method of destruction of worn out flags.

But, what the hell, accuracy is not the long suit of angry white men.

And that has been phase two of the prologue.

What is really on my mind, is why is it ok for these angry white men to bedeck themselves in the American flag?

A few days ago I saw a pot bellied (probably angry) white man with a pair of knee length shorts with the American flag spanning his rather ample ass.

The blue field with the fifty stars was on his left – ample – cheek and disappeared in the canyon of his anus.

I see this sort of flag clothing all the time.

To me this is desecration of the flag.

The flag belongs either furled and properly stored, or waving in the wind properly deployed on a pole.

Not spanning the asshole of an asshole.

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White Privilege

Several years ago I was stopped by a Seattle police officer.

He said I had a tail light out.

I already knew that because my turn signals were telling me via the highly escalated pulse rate that occurs when your tail ight is out.

I just hadn’t had time – it had occurred in the current “driving experience” – to get the bulb replaced.

Then the officer asked me for my proof of insurance card.

I keep that in the glove compartment.

I keep the glove compartment locked.

The key for my car is one of those big plastic contrivances that you push into a hole on the dash and electronic stuff tells the car to do your bidding.

Like adjusting the seat and steering wheel to your chosen positions.

And it also has a little metal key imbedded in it.

That key does several things.

One of them is to unlock the glove compartment.

So I pulled the little key out of the plastic master key, and …

“Oh that’s OK sir; I am sure you have insurance” came from the cop.

He was black.

I was appalled.

But he didn’t shoot me.

I really want all my not privileged white brethren to read this and think about this and realize how subtle is their privilege.,

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