I don't stand when I'm reading the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Do you? When you look up the Amendments on the internet to make sure you know what you're talking about when you offer an opinion, do you stand up at your computer desk? No? Then why would you stand for a symbol of that document? You don't stand for the actual document.

I stand during the Pledge. I don't put my hand over my heart, and I don't recite the pledge. But I do stand, out of respect for those who choose to exercise their right to recite it.

Amen. When asked "what would Jesus do?" - my immediate response would be "Jesus would kneel in protest."

If I owned a company, I would want all employees to be well paid and happy - because then they would have the desire to make the company succeed and they would have more of a TEAM mentality. If an employee was bashing my company I would NOT necessarily think that he or she was wrong. Maybe we, the company, need to change and meet her or his needs better. I would 1st look to see if the company could be improved and in what way.

In this way, the company is analogous to US society, and the disgruntled employee represents Britany Griner. Everyone knows that the US has a racist history and tendency that way today. With a little bit of EMPATHY, we could put ourselves in Griner's shoes! She grows up with 2 prejudices against her, being a woman and being black. Then she has the added flack of being a foot or more taller than even the boys when she is in grade school. Given all those strikes against her, it is amazing that she grew up SANE and not a delinquent. So, I think that her story is an American tale of overcoming adversity and should be celebrated by Americans! And now she has a 4th strike against her through very LITTLE fault of her own - just the fact that 2 of the world's superpowers are flexing their muscles against each other and she is caught in the turmoil. Her situation can be thought of as being a CASUALTY of a renewed and more intense COLD WAR !

To expand the company analogy, and understand the Grider dilemma better, it may actually be informative to ask, "did Britany Griner let down America, or did America let Britany down"?

100% agree.

The "rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air" is in reference to what the British were doing. The Americans were physically holding onto the flagpole to keep it upright after it being hit. When all was said and done, there were a great many dead Americans at the flagpole, whose last conscious act was to keep the flag flying. That alone, deserves RESPECT.

Someone always has to play the race card. I think the fact that she is a "Celebrity" B-ball player had a lot more to do with it than her color. She chose to put herself in the public eye by playing professional sports. She further placed herself in the public eye by participating in a divisive issue (kneeling during the anthem). If she wasn't a professional ball player and she didn't kneel for the national anthem, we probably wouldn't have even heard about it regardless of her color. This story wouldn't have even made the front page and she would have just been left to rot in prison without anyone hardly even knowing about it.

There are Americans all over the world in foreign prisons that we'll never hear about. We're just hearing about this one because she's famous and because it's Russia who we are at odds with right now. Leave your race baiting out of it.

She kneeled and did other stuff to protest police brutality of African Americans.

So the issue of race in the US is in this matter.

She is now, however, just a pawn in a political battle involving Putin and his relations with the US.

Britney Griner will protest during the national anthem all season - Outsports

Excellent news! Finally, an unpatriotic US citizen actually not being allowed back to the country she hates for 9 years!

She does not hate this country. And will probably be exchanged within a year.

Her words and actions clearly demonstrate she bitterly hates the USA. Requesting the National Anthem not be played at her games and kneeling when the National Anthem is played are abhorrently anti-American.

Anti-American by whose definition? Some wag on FOX? Someone like Martin Luther King, Jr. would applaud it as being very American.

By her behavior, her own actions and words, of course: If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck...

This might be helpful in assisting one to understand. Your Guide to Deductive, Inductive, and Abductive Reasoning

You sir are correct the way things are today we would not even hear about a white person in this situation it's all about equity now.

Yes, but the "bombs bursting in air" are images of violence. Why does that deserve more respect than "brotherhood from sea to shining sea"?

Today, we honor veterans who allegedly sacrificed themselves for a good cause, but in many cases it was not, but only to support some dictator or genocide, or something awful like defoliating the Vietnam countryside. That is not honorable even if the individual deed is. We need to get off the military kick and become a truly honorable nation who cares about the lives of people and don't simply cast if off as "collateral damage," the military euphemism for civilians killed in combat.

Disagree. If intent was a valid excuse every single drug trafficker in the world would use it.

But I also think she purchased the oil, intended to use it, & intended to take it to Russia with her.

Additionally galling to me is what it will eventually cost hard working tax payers financially to get this America hating individual out of a Russian prison she deserves to remain in for the crime she committed there; sadly, it will no doubt happen. The amount to me is unfathomable and a total waste of taxpayer money. Repatriating her is an oxymoron of course.

She was found guilty because she admitted to it. She then made varying conflicting excuses, but that doesn't change admitting the charge.

I disagree. She likely "takes a knee" to protest racism and race and gender inequality The average woman makes 30% less wages in the same job as a man - a woman does NOT have to be black to protest that fact. America's birth in Colonial times came about by PROTESTS (give me liberty or give me death. Protests are American, NOT unAmerican. The quote is "TOWARD a more perfect union". No country has achieved a perfect union of its citizens - certainly NOT the US.

So, Brittany Griner protested by taking a knee - there are millions of "other Brittanys" that would, also, protest if they had HER platform. And there are millions of white men that would have traveled to Russia to play any sport if they could have made the MONEY that she did. And a few of them would have forgotten something illegal in their suitcase as they tried to board a plane ( every day of the year some guns turn up at a US airport). I imagine that about 75% of those people FORGOT that a gun was in their coat pocket or somewhere in a suitcase.

In general, I find it surprising that there is so much ANIMOSITY toward Brittany. Especially taking Russia's side over a US citizen. Personally, if I were to guess, I would say that the animosity is part of the recent, general lack of cohesion among all the various ethnic groups of the US. And Russia encourages this ! They have learned that UNITED the US stands tall, but DIVIDED the US falls on its collective face !!!!!!!!!

Marc Fogel would likely agree with you. Nothing whatsoever is being done for him and he only had "medical marijuana", not hashish oil.

"An American educator imprisoned in Russia said he feels “hurt” to be overlooked as the Biden administration works to bring Brittney Griner home, arguing that educators “are at least as important” as basketball players.

Marc Hilliard Fogel, 61 — who was arrested last August at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for trying to enter the country with about 20 grams of medical marijuana — worries about his own fate after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed that the US made a “substantial proposal” to bring home Griner and ex-Marine Paul Whelan.

“That hurt. Teachers are at least as important as bballers,” Fogel wrote in a letter sent to his home in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, of the news reports of the possible exchange for convicted “Merchant of Death” Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout."

From: Teacher in Russia prison blasts Biden over Griner

And I think someone put it in her suitcase to get on Putin's good side with the firestorm it would create. Or Putin goons engineered it.

She admitted she put it in her suitcase. She pleaded guilty.

"Griner had admitted having the vape cartridges containing hashish oil..."

From: Russia sentences Griner to 9 years in prison, White House calls for her release | Reuters

She made a different statement a week or so ago.

Russian court jails Griner for nine years; US calls for release | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

Face it, If it was anyone of us, would the government care? Play stupid games and win stupid prizes. It's like carrying a banned weapon to anyone of our airports. You go to jail. Understand the country's laws you're traveling to. Singapore canes people. You can also be arrested for littering, spitting and jaywalking and fined for failure to flush the toilet.
For some drug offenses, there is mandatory death penalty.

Officials do not distinguish between drugs consumed before entering the country or those taken in Singapore.

The police are able to force both residents and non-residents to submit to random drug testing.

This guy? The plagiarist, alleged womanizer and alleged woman abuser? Whose original birth certificate first name was Michael, not Martin?

"King’s far-from monogamous lifestyle, like his binge-drinking, may fit albeit uncomfortably within his existing life story, but the suggestion—actually more than one—that he either actively tolerated or personally employed violence against any woman, even while drunk, poses so fundamental a challenge to his historical stature as to require the most complete and extensive historical review possible."

From: https://www.davidgarrow.com/wp-conte...dpoint2019.pdf

50 years on, what they won’t tell you about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr… Like How He Plagiarized the overly romanticized ‘I Have A Dream’ Speech - St. Lucia News From The Voice

and his dissertation, too. Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King - The New York Times

Wow. What a revelation. You can find all kinds of junk about people online. Publix check-out stand kind of stuff.

Like The Gray Lady, the NYT? A Pulitzer Prize winning author? His Martin Luther King Biography Was a Classic. His Latest King Piece Is Causing a Furor. - The New York Times

Maybe.

But probably not the University study by BU.

BTW these are demonstrable facts.

The article quoted in that post said that Brittany "inadvertently" packed the illegal substance in her suitcase. That is different than saying that she "admitted" packing the illegal substance. If you are unaware that you packed something, that is the same as "inadvertently" packing something. People all over the world are "inadvertently" packing things that they don't know is in their suitcases. That is why so many guns are found in suitcases in airports. Basically, people make mistakes. That's what people do!

I am not sure that she even has a good lawyer or any lawyer to advise her correctly. And it doesn't EVEN matter because Russian courts convict 99.5 % of all defendants. And there was probably GREAT pressure on her to get a conviction. What I can't possibly understand is WHY so many here are so going out of their way to trash her as if she had just strangled their 1st born son? I realize that residents of TV Land prefer golf and baseball to basketball, but, that can't be the ONLY reason.

And perhaps that answers my question about why so much ANTAGONISM here towards a lady basketball player?

Seriously!!!
 

I think it’s time you went back to the PRC or DPRK from whence you came. 😎

Looks like a lot of people are upset Griner is apparently anti American. If you really want to be upset about being anti American, look no further than right here in the Villages.

Griner did nothing compared to Villages own retired Navy Captain David Lausman, a convicted felon facing 20 years in prison. He accepted bribes while a Captain in the US Navy.

So let's here the outrage over this clown!


Villages man charged in Navy bribery scandal - Orlando Sentinel

This has gotten off topic!

Where is the thumbs down button?

"It also represent 400 years of racism and a century of imperialism and imposing our power and influence on other nations..."

You are absolutely correct. In my lifelong goal of trying to constantly educate myself and increase my knowledge, I'm often staggered by the true/actual/complete history of ours (and most other countries) - that I never learned from 'formal education.'

Good for you. Wondrium is a great source for continuing education. They have many of what they consider the best professors in the US and abroad giving their lectures. And some of these are on US history. A rather new one covers recent African American history. Stream Entertaining Nonfiction Learning | Wondrium

This is totally off topic and a hijacking of the thread. It has nothing to do with Griner being locked up for her crime in Russia.

She committed the crime; she should do the time.

Why are you hijacking the thread? This post has nothing to do with Griner committing a crime in Russia for which she was imprisoned.

She committed the crime; she should do the time.

Start a new thread. You are hijacking this thread about Griner being imprisoned in Russia for possessing hashish oil.

She committed the crime; she should do the time.

Griner's predicament is very closely connected to racism in the United States and her stance of kneeling during the National Anthem or her AND her teammates and others requesting not having it played at all. Certain people are stoking the fires for their own gain and the amusement of their target audience.