Letters to the sports editor

The Oct. 25 Commentary: National Anthem thing has finally reached high school level that I wrote generated some mail. Here are some of the comments our readers sent me about the goalie from Desert Pines taking a knee.

Read your commentary in the PVT this morning. Couldn’t agree more. I am an old veteran and have spent many years in law enforcement. Until week three of this season my wife and I were die-hard Bronco fans. This kneeling and support of these NFL players has completely turned me away from the NFL. We haven’t watched a game since week two and the way I feel right now I am done with the NFL. Even if all these overpaid, unpatriotic players started standing this week I would not watch a single game. My wife and I always stand for our national anthem when we hear it on TV, just the two of us, in our living room. Good article Vern.

Kenny Cravens

an old vet from the old school

Hi,

I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your article in the paper about the young man kneeling for our national anthem. I’m a musician in Pahrump Valley and have a band, The Reeves Brothers. It sure makes me sad to see a kid with such little respect for our country so many people have fought for. I appreciate you for standing up for our country in your article and giving your opinion.

Thanks,

Cole Reeves

I’d like to respond to Vern Hee and his anger over that goalkeeper from Desert Pines High School taking a knee during the national anthem last week. The fact that Vern Hee is boiling mad over this I think is a good thing. I think that was the point, to get under people’s skin, to bother them. When Martin Luther King, Jr. and others peacefully marched across the South, it hurt people, on both sides; it hurt their feelings, their pocketbooks, and sometimes physically. That’s just the nature of protest. If it doesn’t hurt, nothing will change.

Why are they continuing to protest? Why is this protest spreading? Why won’t they just stop, and do something about their problems (as if they weren’t already, and against strong opposition), rather than continuing to waste our time with this disrespect? Maybe it’s because the situation they are protesting against, far from improving, is actually getting worse. Maybe it’s because the people who really need to make change happen, prefer not to, and just want to blame others for the problem. Maybe it’s because, even though the American flag and our national anthem means a lot to us, it has come to mean something far less for so many others, and for good reason. Maybe it’s because they know if they don’t continue to protest we will forget about them within a week, quickly moving on to the next item in the news, and continue with the status quo without changing a single thing.

What have our service men and women taken an oath to fight and die for if it was not ultimately for the ideals for which we stand, of freedom, liberty, and justice for all? We the people need to understand that until these ideals, which the flag and our national anthem are supposed to represent, are equally distributed, there will be irritating protesters who “take a knee.”

Thomas Rasmussen