I went to the last high school game of the season and was
happy to see everyone being respectful. Early
this season, every player had run onto the field with an American Flag held
high.
But at this last game, a few young boys off by themselves took a
knee. They were too young to understand
what they were doing, but they had surely seen this on television.
Much like when I was young, boys kicked their leg high
because that’s the way Juan Marichel did it or held their bat high over their
back shoulder because that’s the way Carl Yastrzemski did it; these boys did
what they had seen professional players do.
No message was attached to their kneeling. They had simply done what they had seen on
television. Most learned how to show
respect for the flag from those around them.
Now they learned how to disrespect it from people on television.
The children learned only disrespect. They do pay attention to our actions. They are prone to emulate. Is it the desire of NFL players to produce a
generation of discontent? Is divisiveness
the new norm for celebrities? Is it
their goal for our nation?
Every parent knows that actions speak louder than
words. Most of what these children know
are the actions they have seen. Parents,
scout masters, and even classroom teachers show children the right way. It only takes a celebrity miscalculating the
cost of an action to set back the values that so many hard-working people have
given their time to instill.
You could call this the law of unintended consequences or
just selfishness, but it needs to change.
To the one who is given much, much
is expected.
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