On Kneeling

            The reverberations caused by President Trump’s tirade against football players kneeling during the National Anthem are not going to die down anytime soon. It is hard for anyone in this country not to be affected, whatever side they’re on. On a personal level, I find the actions of the protesting players to be disrespectful of our flag and the ideals it represents, including the freedom for them to make ignorant asses of themselves. Judging by the boos they continue to receive, I’m not alone.

            Two of my sons, retired naval officers, both served this country honorably for over 20 years. One of them who lives in Jacksonville was particularly incensed by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ behavior in London. Here is part of what he wrote to the president of the Jaguars:

            “The players and coaches who took a knee during the national anthem are not only a disgrace, their choice to do it on foreign soil takes it to another level. It is beyond inexcusable, indefensible and reprehensible. It is an insult to the men and women who are serving our nation today, and to those veterans who have served in the past…a selfish, disrespectful act and an absolute dishonor to the men and women who have shed their blood and given their lives to defend the freedom that we all enjoy as Americans…The Jacksonville Jaguars have insulted the mothers and fathers who have lost a son or daughter on the battlefield, insulted the widows who lost a spouse, insulted the children who are growing up without a father or mother who was killed in action. They have insulted not just their fans, but every patriotic American who believes that our flag and National Anthem stands for something.… I know I speak for my entire family, many of them now ex-Jaguar and ex-NFL fans. I know I speak for my brothers in arms who served alongside of me. I know I speak for the average American who believes that the flag stands for freedom and for who we are as a nation.”

            Hard feelings? You bet.

Devastation

            I took a little tour around the house yesterday, just to see how dependent I am on electricity. The kitchen has appliances: stove, refrigerator, oven, microwave, and toaster, not to mention smaller things like a blender, a griddle, and can opener. In the living room there’s the TV and attached components and speakers, plus table lamps. My office has my computer and printer, a pencil sharpener, a cell phone charger, and more lamps. Bedrooms have lamps, too, and radio alarm clocks. There’s the washer and dryer in the laundry room, and let’s not forget the vacuum cleaner hidden away in a closet. And there’s the power that runs my heating and air conditioning and opens my garage door. These and more are the conveniences of a modern American home. And they all run on electricity.

            And now consider the island of Puerto Rico. The entire island is without power and will be for weeks and months to come. Stores shuttered, food markets shelves empty, garbage piling up outside, unrepaired roofs leaking, indoors insufferably hot, services of all kinds non-existent. The people can’t even charge their cell phones to maintain communications, except in their cars, which will stop running when the tank reads Empty, because gas stations, except the few with generators, need electricity to pump gas. Waiting for help that doesn’t come. Hope fading. Alive, but not living.

            Yabucoa, hit head-on by Maria’s 155 mph winds and 25-foot waves, no longer exists. My father-in-law, who was born there, would not recognize it. My wife, who has relatives in Puerto Rico, was able to reach her cousin Mary Joan in San Juan before her cell phone died. She was emotionally drained, desperation in her voice. None of the other relatives could be reached. Are they safe?

            Relief efforts are on the way, a trickle in a flood. Three and a half million people in Puerto Rico and thousands more in the Virgin Islands wait. How many can be reached with food and water? How will the sick and injured get help? My wife looks at the devastation on her TV screen and mumbles, “Oh, the poor people,” knowing her own people are among them. God help them.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

            Like any other person concerned for the welfare of people facing the destructive impact of Irma, I was glued to my television during the hurricane’s march through the Caribbean and up the Florida peninsula. I was personally worried about my brother André, who lives in Oldsmar at the head of Tampa Bay, and my son Marc, our three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren hunkered down in Jacksonville. Thankfully, they all survived with no major damage to their health or their property.

            Relieved that it could have been so much worse for my family, I still have several images etched in my memory. One is of the total destruction inflicted by the storm on the Virgin Islands. How will they ever recover? A second is of the intrepid reporters who stayed behind in places like Naples and Miami to bring us live images of the fury of Irma. A third is of the rescuers and the volunteers who displayed not only an indomitable spirit in the face of catastrophy, but also a boundless devotion to the victims, especially the aged and the infirm. A fourth, regrettably, is of looters whose despicable behavior in taking advantage of a disaster to enrich themselves left me fuming at such depravity.

            This is not the first time we’ve seen looters carrying merchandise from stores; scenes of ransacking in Ferguson and Baltimore are still fresh in our memories. But rather than condemning such behavior, some on the left excused it, like journalist Sarah Jaffe who posted a picture of imprisoned looters and tweeted, “The carceral state exists to protect private property and is inseparable from white supremacy.” One critic jumped on that ridiculous comment with, “You’re saying that non-whites can’t help but steal?” After a flood of negative comments like that one, Jaffe responded, “That s—t’s full of Nazis.” Sadly, moral depravity takes many forms.

Two Clowns and a Button

            Floods in Texas, fires in California, a Category 5 hurricane targeting Florida—what more destruction can we take? There’s worse, I’m afraid, because we have two clowns with bad haircuts threatening nuclear holocaust. God forbid one of them decides to push the button first.

            Kim Jong Un’s objective is a reunited Korea under his control, and he is playing a dangerous game of chicken to reach it. He is wagering that the United States will abandon South Korea rather than start a nuclear war. That’s why he’s raising the ante with more tests of missiles capable of delivering a hydrogen bomb to Japan or even a U.S. territory. In response, President Trump threatens fire and fury. But what kind?

            The debate in the bowels of the Pentagon is on whether or not to carry out a preventive strike. It is doubtful that the U.S. would use nukes to vaporize North Korea without a first strike by the renegade regime, no matter how grave the threats from Pyongyang. Short of a nuclear strike, the options are a matter of degree: do we try to send a message by going after North Korea’s launch sites, or do we target all of its military facilities, including Kim’s headquarters? In either case our actions would likely trigger a retaliation that could vaporize Seoul and kill thousands of American soldiers. That’s not a responsibility that our President and his military advisors want to bear.

            Does this mean that Kim’s strategy is working? Maybe. But we have other means of persuading him to back off, like severe economic, financial, and trade sanctions and cutting off any country that does business with North Korea. But sanctions have never worked in the past and are not likely to work now. And cutting business ties with China and others has enormous implications on many levels, none of which are good for us. So where are we now?

            Hoping for a resolution to this conflict is much like waiting to see where Hurricane Irma will hit. The only certainty: devastation. 

Hypocrisy Exposed

            The shameless hypocrisy of the Democrats and their sycophantic enablers in the media is catching up with them. The delicious irony is that the hypocrisy is being exposed by Antifa, a group that until just recently Democrats considered part of their loyal base.

            For weeks and months now, TV news programs have been showing us Antifa thugs smashing windows, starting fires, and clubbing people senseless. But as long as their targeted victims were conservative speakers at Berkeley or white supremacists in Charlottesville, the Democrats said nothing. The leftist media, true to form, celebrated these anarchists, as long as they targeted the neo-Nazi purveyors of racism.

            But something is happening on Main Street America. People have begun to realize that the violence used by Antifa to advance their radical agenda is by definition un-American. Americans are now asking themselves why Democrats and their media allies have not been condemning this violence, why it was all right for them to condemn the KKK and denounce President Trump at every turn, but not proper to denounce Antifa and its violent tactics.

            Suddenly, some Democrats realized that Antifa was handing their Republican opponents a tailor-made issue for exposing leftist hypocrisy. On Tuesday, August 29, Nancy Pelosi finally spoke up: “The violent actions of people calling themselves Antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation.” Wonderful. But where was she after Charlottesville? Or after February 1^st, March 4^th, April 15^th and April 27^th when masked and black-clad Antifa thugs attacked Trump supporters and prevented Conservatives from speaking?

            Like the Democrats in Congress, the elite media has down-played the violence. What it should have done is press the Democrats to disavow Antifa? Why didn’t it do that? Because it was too busy trashing President Trump and right-wing groups to condemn violence on the left.

            Americans are not stupid. They don’t like bias and hypocrisy, and they abhor violence. It’s about time the Trump bashers wake up and pay attention. Antifa is not going away unless we all take a stand and put an end to its thuggery.