Protestation vs. Perpetuation

Protestation vs. Perpetuation

Ha Ha Clinton Dix recently wore these shoes (pictured below) onto the field to honor officer’s shot in the line of duty.

FreedomDaily.com goes far beyond anything I’ve heard or read so far about the causes for what appears to be an escalation of these types of shootings.

“These types of vile sentiments that Kaepernick and other NFL players continue to display towards our police officers is now what’s causing them to be massacred in the streets.”

Causation as the Culprit

Causation means, “the act of causing something to happen.” There’s a difference between “influence” and causation. The lack of rain caused the flower to die.”  That’s causation. Paul Simon influenced my songwriting.” That’s influence. You can’t say, Paul Simon “caused” me to write songs any more than you can say, players protesting police brutality is causing more police brutality.

Going about using rash judgements concerning the cause-effect connection in societal behaviors is not helping anyone. With that said, allow me to tell you a short story about influence and how it can be confused with causation.

I was once teaching inner-city kids in K.C. and I used to have to walk my class to the bathroom at specific times of the day and when I did… to watch my students better… I would turn around and walk backwards. I even learned to walk backwards up and down the stairs. After a month of this, my boss came to me and said, “You have to stop walking backwards down the hallway.” I asked why and she said, “Because when you excuse your kids to go to the bathroom on their own, they walk backwards up and down the hallway and on the stairs.”

Obviously, we can never know when our own behavior has had a negative effect on someone else. I came from the 1960s and to this day believe in peaceful rational protests.

Last September, our own Jason Seibel wrote a piece called, “Protest, Flags and Football: My 9/11 Story” in which he states,

“Kaepernick and all the others who have chosen to engage in this silent protest are exercising their First Amendment rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. What are they hurting? Is what they are doing any different than what other peaceful protesters have done over the years?”

Jason has served for many years in our armed forces and also said this emphatically,

“Don’t misunderstand me here. Do I agree with it? Absolutely not. It angers and frustrates me when people don’t stand up for the Star Spangled Banner and our flag. I know exactly what has been sacrificed for that flag. I’ve seen that sacrifice first hand. I have carried the bodies of the dead–coffins draped in the flag that this song represents–onto airplanes set to take them to their final resting place. These are the sons and daughters, mothers and fathers of this nation’s people.”

I respect Jason’s position on this issue as much as anyone’s. Nothing I’ve heard recently has changed that stance for me. While I’d prefer to keep entertainment and politics separate, I also understand that without the freedoms that our political system provides us, we may very well not be able to enjoy this game we love, when and where we choose to enjoy it.

If you are viewing this in Apple News and would like to join the Discussion, [GO HERE.](http://arrowheadone.com/protestation-vs-perpetuation/#disqus_thread)