Perspectives on anthem kneeling
As an Anglo-Saxon, white, Protestant male, I would never feel right doing anything to disrespect my flag and country.
However, If I was a black man in this country and wanted to bring attention to the racial injustice, I would kneel in a heartbeat.
Charles Mitchell
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Not just products of Civil War time
A recent Times Free Press column bemoaned the complaints about the statues of leaders of the Confederacy and made the point that many other statues should be taken down based on something the honorees said.
For example, Lincoln didn't think much of the capabilities of plantation blacks, and Martin Luther King tended to be homophobic - so why have statues of them?
Ignoring the fact that these examples did not lead a rebellion against our country, it must be said they were products of a different time. It is like saying Republicans are the party of civil rights when that no longer appears to be true.
My father, 50 to 70 years ago, disliked Catholics; my grandmother, 70 to 90 years ago, believed in eugenics and spoke about "the dirty Irish." Those were common, if small, attitudes of their times. Our founders and other great leaders were hardly perfect, but their accomplishments stand out.
Can we really say the same about the leaders of the rebellion?
Byron Chapin, Hixson
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New stadium would benefit city, county
I am among that tiny minority who favor some financial participation by the city and county in a new minor league stadium. It is my experience that cities that do not agree to participate do so at their own peril, with the team invariably leaving for another city.
I have seen this time and again, usually with the offended city then agreeing to essentially the same deal by someone else in order to get a team back. One current example is Huntsville, now without baseball but which will eventually pay the requested ransom to re-enter the market.
As a longtime Lookouts fan, I would just as soon not lose the franchise, and I feel the team has a major economic benefit to the community that is often not fully appreciated.
I find it interesting local developer Mike Mallen, whose Southside project I totally support, stated the Lookouts play 80 home games per year, and that is about 15 percent of the total nights a new stadium would be used.
If true, even at 70 nights, which is the correct number, that means we can look forward to the new stadium being used around 450 nights per year!
Tom Quillen
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Trump criticizes when he benefits
"He advocates war and bombings because he's not going." It's odd that a president who never served in the military by getting deferments for alleged "bone spurs," and then criticized a prisoner of war, John McCain, for being captured, is criticizing people about the national anthem and the flag.
The only time this president believes in anything is when it benefits him.
That includes, flag, anthem and country.
Porter McKamey