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Wednesday night, I shared a post to MageeNews.com FB page. The post was from Taya Kyle who is the widow of the former NFL player Chris Kyle who chose to join the service and postpone his NFL career. Chris Kyle was killed by friendly fire while serving his country.
I have received several comments about this post. Charla Magee reached out to me wanting to be sure her feelings were shared with the public. Below is a copy of the post I shared and Charla’s feelings about kneeling for the National Anthem . Please feel free to comment on this article or email Sue@mageenews.com.
The FB article has been shared over 6,000 times. Comments you may see under the article on. FB or not necessarily comments from local people. The comments are coming from all over the world.
Taya Kyle – American Wife
September 26 at 10:57am ·
Dear NFL,
You were doing your part to bring people together and heal the world. That’s really how healing works. We heal by loving each other and leading by example; showing people what is possible when we love each other just as we are and not only recognize our differences but celebrate them and look at how we can use them together to make us jointly better than our separate parts. You were doing your part celebrating each other based on skills, talent and a joint vision without regard to color and religion.
You were doing your part and we were doing ours. We showed up cheering and groaning together to as one. We talked in the concession lines and commiserated and celebrated our team together. Did it ever occur to you that you and we were already a mix of backgrounds, races and religions? We were already living the dream you want, right in front of you.
Your desire to focus on division and anger has shattered what many people loved most about the sport. Football was really a metaphor for our ideal world –different backgrounds, talents, political beliefs and histories as one big team with one big goal – to do well, to win, TOGETHER.
You are asking us to abandon what we loved about togetherness and make choices of division. Will we stand with you? Will we stand with our flag? What does it mean? What does it mean if we buy a ticket or NFL gear? What does it mean if we don’t? It is the polar opposite of the easy togetherness we once loved in football.
It was simple – we loved you and you loved us – with all of our races, religions, different backgrounds and politics. Simplicity in a crazy world was pretty awesome.
You dear NFL, have taken that. You have lost me here.
If you ever want to get off your knees and get to work on building bridges, let me know. I have found screaming about the problems in service marriages or even standing in silence in front of them, hasn’t healed even one of them. On the other hand, funding the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, building a team and rolling up my sleeves to get in the trenches during my “off time” -volunteering there outside of my paying jobs – has proven to make real change.
You have a lot of strong guys, I am sure in the off season a lot of them could build some pretty big bridges if they care enough to do the hard work. That would involve getting off their knees and getting to work though. I can do it while I raise two kids as their only parent and work through the greatest pain of my life, let’s see if they can do it for the issues they say they care so much about.
Go Longhorns and Sic ‘Em …
Sincerely,
Taya
Dear My Fellow Americans: I am writing this post because I feel many have jumped to the wrong conclusion about the NFL players and their rights to kneel. There are two things I would like to make known, even if the rest of my post is not read. One, the NFL players have no desire or intent to disrespect the flag, anthem or our country, they are protesting peacefully against racial inequality and social unrest. Secondly, black athletes have tried to discuss with proper authorities and people in charge about the ongoing killings of our black young men from police officers. Nobody listens and care to have a conversation about our issues. When we protest in the streets we are labeled thugs, rioters and trouble makers. When we protest on social media we are told it is not the right time because of our jobs, even if it’s after work. Now on the field, that too is the wrong place and time. I ask, when and where is the right time for people of color to protest? No NFL fan can truthfully say that these protesters are not doing what they are paid to do, that’s playing football. The American flag is a symbol for freedom and yet we are ridiculed for expressing the freedom in which it represents. No one should be made to stand during the anthem or ridiculed for not standing. I realize standing to some are equivalent to being patriotic. However, kneeling should not be termed “unpatriotic”. I encourage you all to look up the things that are disrespectful to the flag under the US Flag Codes. One, that really sticks out in my mind is the flag should not be carried flat which is what NFL has done many times. Another is the flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. I believe most elected officials have violated this code before and during election. My point is the narrative that has so many upset, about people who are kneeling during the national anthem are disrespecting our flag and country is totally false. Before 2009 players were in the locker room during the anthem. I don’t know for sure but I believe they were probably doing what ever last-minute prep for the game while the anthem was played. This ongoing debate and outrage of how some choose to salute the flag is not what the flag represents. No one should be made to salute a flag that symbolizes freedom and should not be ridiculed for it or fearful for losing their jobs. Even camera men are not ridiculed for taking pictures during the anthem. Most of them are not standing or saluting. The issue at hand is not about the flag. The issue at hand is about the protest for civil equality. A topic our leaders in America refuse to address. What have hurt me the most is that most people were not outraged about #45, the leader of the free world, calling people kneeling SOB’s on national tv. Things of that nature is what led to the protest in the first place. Everyone should be outraged about that comment. Very few is talking about that. Instead, he (#45), twisted the narrative to the flag and what is so sad is so many followed. #NotAboutTheFlag Thank you, Charla Magee
Sue the prez
