TERRY MOSHER
MEGAN RAPINOE
You know, it isn’t difficult to do the right things in life. Most of us – maybe all of us – have the ability from birth to tell right from wrong. It doesn’t have to be a serious wrong like a murder. It can be just something we say that is hurtful. Our subconscious will tell us when we slip up.
So from now on, I’m going to use the Sportspaper.org to tell some of the things I believe that are right and just. We are living in dangerous times and if I can’t be direct and honest about the injustices I see what good am I?
The Washington Post has a motto that is simple, but direct: Democracy dies in silence. So I will not be silenced.
I was reading the latest edition of Time Magazine today and I was struck by the passion and determination of soccer star Megan Rapinoe to fight for justice and equality for gay rights and for women to be paid on an equal basis with the men.
Rapinoe, who plays for Seattle Reign FC, is the first in women’s soccer to stick up for Colin Kaepernick and take a knee during the playing of the national anthem when the Reign played in Chicago against the Red Stars.
Let me make myself clear, not standing during the playing of the national anthem is being disrespectful of the American Flag. It is customary to stand for the national anthem. We have been condition to it, but there is no law that says you have to.
By not standing, some athletes are using it as a protest for various things, including gay rights, equality in pay, and racial injustices that have been part of our country before the Civil War and continue to be a part of our country. I don’t get it. Why should skin color impose on you discrimination and killings that we see all the time? But the racists out there spew hatred for non-white people even though they don’t know them except for their different skin color. How unjust is that?
We are all human and all stem from a single God.
As you might expect, Rapinoe faced backlash for what she did. She was not selected for several international teams and U.S. Soccer adopted a policy because of her that all players must stand for the national anthem. So now Rapinoe stands, but with her hands clasped behind her back.
She’s a fighter, fighting the good fight, and I’m with her.
Rapinoe told time,” F— it, I know that in my heat, my intentions are good, and whether society at large is supporting me, it’s not something I guild my decisions on.”
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We are under attack in this country and across the globe by right-wing extremists with white nationalists bent. All the things worth fighting for are being legislated out or trampled by these extremists.
Roe vs. Wade is now 46 years old. It was held by the Supreme Court in 1973 that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution provides a fundamental “right to privacy” that protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.
The Fourteenth Amendment: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction there of, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
States where the Republicans control the legislatures and governorships have begun passing anti-abortion laws, some of them very strict, as an attack on Roe vs Wade. These laws are being passed like a shotgun blast in the hope that one of them will be taken up by the Supreme Court where conservatives are in the majority and the far-right hopes it will strike down Roe vs. Wade.
If that happens, and it likely will, that will sat women’s rights back a 100 years and bring back the illegal butcher shops that will mutilate or kill women by the thousands.
Midnight is coming to women and there is nothing I can do to stop it. The abortion vs. anti-abortion discussion in our country is most heated one we have. It’s difficult to be a mug-wump (a fence sitter) on this issue. You are either in or you are not.
I have a brother who is a strict catholic and when during the 2016 presidential campaign I talked candidates with him, he suddenly exploded about Sanders and Clinton, “They are murders. They are murders,” he shouted in my ear.
Even thought my brother’s respond shook me to the depths of my soul, I refused to be cowered. I believe a woman has the right to decide what is best for her. White and stuffy old white male nationalists who get on their soapboxes and say what they decide is what is going to be right for women make me sick. Maybe they should all be castrated. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about men dictating to woman what they can and cannot do with their bodies.
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I’m going to throw a little sport in here. Before Game 2 of the NBA playoffs, I didn’t believe Golden State had a chance against Toronto. Boy was I wrong. The Warriors shut off Toronto’s big men and in a close game, won Game 2.
The hero of these playoffs is not Steph Curry, but Draymond Green. He’s a great defender and is the fuel that sparks the Golden State offense. They say you can’t give 110 percent — it’s impossible, when you think about it — but if anybody can give the extra 10 percent over 100 it’s Green. Watch him closely in Game 3. He’s the key.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
