[Peace-discuss] Higher Ground & anti-war, etc.

[David Green]

Yesterday the Ammons's discussed (former?) NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other issues on their morning WEFT program Higher Ground.
The gist of their presentation was defending the support of former NFL player/current commentator Shannon Sharpe in his criticism of the effective ban on Kaepernick by NFL owners. Nevertheless, Sharpe accepted the notion that our military "fights for our freedom" (in so many words), while pointing our that blacks still have a long way to go in order to achieve equality.
Apparently, Kaepernick agrees with those sentiments, as Dave Zirin noted a year or so ago when this controversy erupted:
"In fact, Kaepernick stood and clapped on the sidelines when members of the military were recognized on the field. Kaepernick has said explicitly, “I have great respect for the men and women that have fought for this country. I have family, I have friends that have gone and fought for this country. This country isn’t holding up their end of the bargain… men and women that have been in the military have come back and been treated unjustly, and have been murdered by the country they fought for, on our land. That’s not right.” "
Neither of the Ammons's questioned the underlying logic; their focus, as it almost always is, was on racial issues at home in the context of the long Civil Rights Movement.
While I support Kaepernick's protest in relation to the BLM movement, it seems to me that if he does that in the context of all the overt militarism that goes into pre-game ceremonies, then the issue of global hegemony has to be addressed in a more forthright manner.
This analysis, or lack thereof, was also reflected in Aaron's comments at the end of the show regarding Sundiata Cha-Jua and the criticism he has received for his columns in the News-Gazette--not from me and Carl in relation to the notion of "white rage," but from those who simply want the paper to drop his column for the usual "conservative" reasons.
Surely if Aaron has read those letters, he must have read the ones from me and Carl. But instead of promoting a needed discussion of class and race (and identity politics), he was more interested in just circling the wagons, so to speak, and proposed that Cha-Jua speak on a future program to do so.
In addition, there were vehement comments by the Ammons's regarding Trump's thuggish comments regarding police treatment of suspects, with the Ammons's calling for the three local police chiefs (CU + U of I) to denounce them (while admitting that perhaps they had already done so).
OK fine, but where was substantive criticism of Obama and his DOJ policies during the 8 years that included all the events that led to BLM?
Anti-Trumpism is being used as a methodology to avoid confronting the fundamental issues of our era, by those who claim to represent the interests of the "least" among us.
DG

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