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Posts tagged ‘equal rights’

Allen West DESTROYS ‘Social Justice’ NFL Players ‘taking a knee’


waving flagAs Written By Allen B. West:, September 13, 2016

URL of the original posting site: http://allenwestrepublic.com/2016/09/13/allen-west-destroys-social-justice-nfl-players-taking-a-knee/#

Allen West DESTROYS ‘Social Justice’ NFL Players ‘taking a knee’It suppose I need to send my message to Colin Kaepernick and the Miami Dolphins. And spare me the “we are not disrespecting our military” line — that is so weak.

It was a very interesting weekend for football, and one that offered a contrast for me and one of my best friends. On Saturday night, it was the Battle in Bristol between my Tennessee Volunteers and the Virginia Tech Hokies. My Dive Pirates buddy Marlene, a Hokie, and I had fun joking with each other in Cozumel about the game. However, there was a moment that gave both us, former Army officers, a prime moment of pride. It was when country music star Jennifer Nettles stepped up to sing the national anthem before a record crowd of 156,990 at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The huge flag was unfurled on the field and looking up in the stands were the placards that depicted the letters USA and our national colors. The camera panned the crowd and there were veterans and the cadets of Virginia Tech rendering the hand salute. You could hear the crowd singing in unison, a great moment – that’s how it’s done. And after a horrible first quarter, the Vols went on to win the game. But for that special moment, the largest ever audience to see a college football game was united, as one…E Pluribus Unum.

But the following day, on the 15th remembrance of 9-11, my dear and best friend, my forever Pastor, Scott Eynon of Community Christian Church in Tamarac, Florida had a very different experience. Pastor Scott is a diehard Miami Dolphins fan, and I mean not a Sunday will go by in the Fall where he doesn’t have a Dolphins reference in his sermon — appropriately so of course. But Pastor Scott and I texted about a sincere pain he felt this past Sunday.

As reported by NBC Miami, The decision by four Miami Dolphins players to kneel during the national anthem before kickoff against Seattle Sunday is being met with both support and backlash – including from one super model who is engaged to another professional athlete.

Arian Foster, Michael Thomas, Jelani Jenkins and Kenny Stills took a knee just before the anthem began. The four held their hands over their hearts as the anthem played and stood immediately at its conclusion.

“I chose to get involved to see if I could create change, raise awareness. And I want to make it clear that there is no disrespect to the military or to police officers — I’m not about that. I love everyone,” said Jenkins. “I would like to keep moving forward in the right direction with everybody: equal rights, equal opportunity. From my position, it doesn’t seem that it’s happening. That’s why I took a stand.”

The Dolphins got support from one very important person — their boss, team owner Stephen Ross.

“I don’t think it was any lack of respect,” Ross said. “I think everybody here, our team and our whole organization, respects the flag and what it stands for, the soldiers and everything. These guys are really making a conversation of something that’s a very important topic in this country and I’m 100 percent supportive of them.”Leftist Propagandist

Kate Upton, who is engaged to Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, specifically condemned the players’ actions as “more horrific” because they occurred on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Here’s what I’d like to have: a simple discussion with these players who are taking this action over “social justice,” “equal rights,” and “equal opportunity.” I’d like to know what specific policy they believe the United States of America promotes to hinder these ideals. As a matter of fact, I’d like these football players to explain what social justice, equal rights and equal opportunity mean?

I grew up in the inner city, so perhaps they can articulate what about America kept me — or restrains anyone — from achieving their dream. What is it institutionally about America that supports their protest? I’m quickly tiring of idiotic and asinine general statements which are nothing more than trite sound bites that someone is regurgitating.

And for the Dolphins owner to excuse this disrespect — and yes, that’s what it is…Doggone, I wish former US Navy SEAL, Admiral McCraven, the Chancellor of the University of Texas system, was the commissioner of the NFL. We shared his letter, this directive, with you here. What is it about these privileged perfumed princes that make them believe there’s a national problem with America and the ability of individuals to pursue their own happiness?

I suppose I need to send my message to Colin Kaepernick and the Miami Dolphins. And spare me the “we are not disrespecting our military” line — that is so weak. Yes gentlemen, you are disrespecting the very people who defend the ability for you to make millions of dollars as they stand upon freedom’s ramparts. And sadly, to do so on the 15th remembrance of 9-11, when brave first responders lost their lives…and consider the many members of our Armed Services who lost their lives and carry permanent scars since.AMEN

To Mssrs. Foster, Thomas, Jenkins, and Stills, imagine if the Minutemen did as you did and took a knee at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge? What if our young American Army decided to take a knee at Valley Forge? What if the defenders at Ft. McHenry just took a knee when they were being bombarded by the British Navy? Should we have taken a knee in the Meuse-Argonne, Belleau Woods…at Pearl Harbor, Midway, Normandy, Bastogne, Chosin Reservoir, Ia Drang Valley, Hue City, Khe Sanh, Fallujah, Kandahar? Yes, your action is disrespectful to our men and women in uniform, and the disturbing statement that you don’t believe it is just further demonstrates your ignorance in not understanding what drives and motivates us, those who have served – We, who do not take a knee on America.

Let me explain something. We do have a saying in the military, “take a knee.” Normally that order is given when troops are tired and need a break. Or that action happens when troops are pausing to observe, orient, and decide the manner by which they will move forward against the enemy. Regardless, “taking a knee” in the military is just to pause before Charlie Mike (continuing the mission). Let me share some pictures of our brave heroes taking a knee.

knee

take-a-knee

Now, look at these men, and tell me if you still believe what you did has any semblance of honor and character. We fight to support your freedom of expression. However, we find dishonorable this ill-conceived action you’ve taken.

So, as long as you express yourself, I’ll feel free to express myself…especially since four generations of men in my family NEVER took a knee when our country called. We stood and as Isaiah said in Chapter 6, Verse 8…”Here am I, send me.”

Heart

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Ala. Supreme Court: ‘Unborn Child Has Inalienable Right to Life From its Earliest Stages’


http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/ala-supreme-court-unborn-child-has-inalienable-right-life-its?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Marketing&utm_term=Facebook&utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=n-alabama-abortion

April 23, 2014 – 2:08 PM

By Michael W. Chapman

 

(CNSNews.com) – In a case about a pregnant woman who used cocaine and endangered her unborn child, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed (8-1) that the word “child” includes “an unborn child,” and that the law therefore “furthers the State’s interest in protecting the life of children from the earliest stages of their development.”

In his concurring opinion, Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore wrote that “an unborn child has an inalienable right to life from its earliest stages of development,” and added, “I write separately to emphasize that the inalienable right to life is a gift of God that civil government must secure for all persons – born and unborn.”

The court decision on April 18 was in reference to Sarah Janie Hicks v. State of Alabama. Hicks had been charged in 2009 with violating Alabama’s chemical-endangerment statute, which in part says that a “person commits the crime of chemical endangerment” by “knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally causes or permits a child to be exposed to, to ingest or inhale, or to have contact with a controlled substance, chemical substance, or drug paraphernalia,” a felony.

In Hicks’ case, she was charged with using cocaine while pregnant. Her child, “J.D.,” tested positive for cocaine “at the time of his birth,” reads the court document.  (See Hicks v. Alabama.pdf)

pregnant, abortion

(AP Photo)

In January 2010, Hicks pleaded guilty to the crime but also “reserved the right to appeal the issues” she and her attorneys had presented earlier in trying to get the charges dismissed. Hicks got a three year suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation.

Hicks appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Alabama, arguing that because the chemical-endangerment statute did not specifically use the words “unborn children” or “fetuses,” the law was ambiguous and could not have applied to her unborn child.

The Appeals Court ruled against Hicks, stating that “the plain language of 26-15-3.2 [chemical-endangerment statute] was clear and unambiguous and that the plain meaning of the term ‘child’ in [the statute] included an unborn child or viable fetus.’”

Hicks then petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court in 2012 to review the Appeals Court decision.  Last Friday’s ruling affirmed the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

In their conclusion, eight of the nine Alabama Supreme Court justices said: “Consistent with this Court’s opinion in Ankrom [a similar chemical-endangerment case], by its plain meaning, the word ‘child’ in the chemical-endangerment statute includes an unborn child, and, therefore, the statute furthers the State’s interest in protecting the life of children from the earliest stages of their development.”

moore

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy S. Moore.

The law to protect the life of unborn children “is consistent with many statutes and decisions throughout our nation that recognize unborn children as persons with legally enforceable rights in many areas of the law,” said the justices.

In his own concurring opinion, Chief Justice Moore argued that natural rights come from God, not from the government. He cited the Declaration of Independence that there is a “self-evident” truth that “all Men are created equal, [and] that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,” particularly “life.”  (See Hicks v. Alabama.pdf)

The Declaration of Independence “acknowledges as  ‘self-evident’ the truth that all human beings are endowed with inherent dignity and the right to life as a direct result of having been created by God,” said Chief Justice Moore.

He also cited Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, which says, “This law of nature, being co-eval [beginning at the same time] with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this ….”

Chief Justice Moore went on to explain how at the Nuremburg Trials at the end of World War II, Nazi criminals could not argue that they were only following orders or just following the laws of the German government because there is a higher law, the “very law of nature.”

“Although the Nuremberg defendants were following orders and the laws of their own officials and country, they were guilty of violating a higher law to which all nations are equally subject: the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” wrote Justice Moore.

baby

Human baby in the womb. (AP)

 That law binds all nations, including the State of Alabama, said Justice Moore. “In 2006, the AlabamaLegislature amended the homicide statute to define ‘person’ to include ‘an unborn child in utero at any stage of development, regardless of viability,” he wrote, “thus recognizing under the statute that, when an ‘unborn child’ is killed, a ‘person’ is killed.”

In conclusion,  he wrote, “The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment provides that a state may not ‘deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’ … Unborn children are a class of persons entitled to equal protection of the laws.”

“[S]tates have an obligation to provide to unborn children at any stage of their development the same legal protection from injury and death they provide to persons already born,” wrote Justice Moore. “Because a human life with a full genetic endowment comes into existence at the moment of conception, the self-evident truth that ‘all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights’ encompasses the moment of conception.”   (See  Hicks v. Alabama.pdf)

“Legal recognition of the unborn as members of the human family derives ultimately from the laws of nature and of nature’s God, Who created human life in His image and protected it with the commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill,’” wrote Chief Justice Moore.  “Therefore, the interpretation of the word ‘child’ in Alabama’s chemical-endangerment statute, § 26-15- 3.2, Ala. Code 1975, to include all human beings from the moment of conception is fully consistent with these first principles regarding life and law.”

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