Ignorance is Bliss

This is how you do it! Kudos to Geneo Grissom for demonstrating respectful professional conduct becoming of an NFL player during the National Anthem. (unlike the lunkheads kneeling next to him)

Fall is here again; it's actually my favorite season. Fall is such a beautiful time of year, so many things to take in, the fresh air, the foliage, pumpkin coffee (well actually pumpkin everything), and football among other fun fall things.

Which brings me to a disturbing trend that seems to be taking over the NFL, kneeling during the National Anthem. (WARNING: this blog is not politically correct, snowflakes and safe space residents please be advised).

Why on earth does everything these days have to offend someone for some reason? Why are people so easily offended? When did Americans get such thin skin? I'm sorry but I just find it totally and utterly ridiculous for grown men to be acting like spoiled rotten little kindergarteners on the playground.

The Greatest Generation left their homes, families and country (well before any of them were actually even men by the way) to go fight in foreign lands to keep America and the rest of the world free. They stopped a madman from taking over the world, and saved an entire race of people. Every single day in our country for almost our entire history men and women have lined up to put others ahead of themselves, and leave everything they know so that others can be free.

I have had the honor to perform the National Anthem for many professional sports teams, and it is actually one of my favorite songs to sing. So forgive me, but I find it abhorrent that grown men who make millions of dollars playing a professional sport that they love for a living feel it is appropriate to have a temper tantrum and protest the National Anthem and Flag because they don't like the President; or feel some need to kneel for "social justice". Seriously, do we really need social justice here in America?

We have dozens of social programs including but not limited to free and supplemented education, housing, food, and medical for people in need or low income individuals and or families (including non citizens - yes it happens every day). People come from other countries to have babies on the American tab in American hospitals, then go back home to Iran (just one of many countries) and poof the baby is now a citizen. It's a simple word with big complications and consequences; entitlements they do exist and yes they are abused. Yet so many seem to be ignorant to the reality of what is actually happening, so when the social justice warriors come calling they fall in line.

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. According to social justice warriors she has so many wrongs to apologize for, and to be embarrassed of. America, the country where people have come from nothing, from complete poverty and risen to the highest heights in their fields. There are hundreds upon hundreds of examples of sports figures, Dr's, lawyers, law enforcement professionals, and teachers, all of them dreamers. People who did not let where they came from determine where they were going, and who they would ultimately become. All of these people who did this, did it in America.

America a country that some choose to stand up and fight for, and some choose to kneel in protest. I ask what on earth are they protesting? Being born in a country that affords them the opportunity to play professional sports and earn millions of dollars a year for a living?

Yes, it would have been so much better to be born somewhere like Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Somalia. Better yet, maybe even better to be born a little girl in Somalia (where female genital mutilation with no anesthesia is a common practice by the age of five). Yes, would be so much better to be there, or anywhere other than America. Give me a break.

Ironic, I seem to recall a certain NFL player who kneeled to pray before games and he was mocked. Yet now we have NFL players who kneel to protest and they are celebrated? Houston, we have some problems.

People including NFL players are free to have an opinion, to like, dislike or even hate the President. However, I have a newsflash for the people who think it is cool to kneel in protest for the National Anthem and the Flag: the Flag and the National Anthem represent people, not a political party. The Flag and the National Anthem represent men and women who gave everything they had, some even their lives for this country.

So when players protest, they are spitting in the eye of Americans; spitting in the eye of the people who died for them to have that right. Players can have their personal opinions and they can do it on their own time. Fans do not pay hundreds of dollars to go see a game to watch players act like spoiled children. If they want to protest they can do it on their own time, and not under the guise or platform of the NFL. It is disrespectful, it is disgraceful, and it is sickening.

So I say, don't like America, hate America? Stand up, or pack your bags and don't let the door hit ya on the way out. I’m sure one of the countries I mentioned above would be glad to have you.

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com