Pro Athletes could be Constructive, Not Counterproductive and Disrespectful - Granite Grok

Pro Athletes could be Constructive, Not Counterproductive and Disrespectful

Professional athletes could significantly help solve the problems that they complain about; unfortunately their disrespectful protests of our country are counter-productive, self-destructive, and alienate people who support and applaud constructive efforts to help America’s less fortunate. The saddest thing is that the athletes’ ill-considered protests may encourage more disobedience of and fights with police which may result in more avoidable deaths.

Professional athletes are welcomed in any American community. They could educate, encourage, and perhaps lead efforts in poor communities to pressure politicians to change the conditions that keep people and communities poor.

Professional athletes could lead the fight for school choice so every American child has the opportunity to escape from poor and/or dangerous schools.

Professional athletes could fight for the jobs people need to escape poverty by leading the fight against the tax, regulatory, and bureaucratic policies, and poor policing that keep a business, and the jobs they offer, out of communities.

Professional athletes could fight for the institutions and behaviors that lead people to avoid or escape poverty and to prosper. They could fight for marriage as relatively few two-parent families live in poverty but families headed by uneducated unmarried mothers almost always live in poverty. They could talk about how doing drugs, committing crimes, and unprepared parenthood makes life very difficult; yet, following a simple formula leads most people to a middle class or better life, in sequence: get an education, get a good job, and get married before having children.

Professional athletes could fight for a greater police presence in high crime neighborhoods because every family deserves to live in a safe neighborhood.

Professional athletes could tell people to act respectfully towards and obey the police because cooperating will lead to a much better result than disrespecting or fighting them. There is a time and place to address any perceived inappropriate police action, but not when police could still feel in danger (they have a right to life too).

It’s not our flag, our country, our service men and women, or our economic system that are responsible for the poor conditions, e.g., poverty, crime, and poor/dangerous schools that too many citizens endure.It’s the politicians, often voted for by the less fortunate community members themselves, that control the schools, business environment, and policing that keep so many people in poverty and in dangerous neighborhoods.

While it’s much easier to take a knee or raise a fist, professional athletes who really care could lead the fight to make politicians change their policies, or lead the fight to elect politicians who will provide the schools, the business and job opportunities, and the policing that enable everyone to prosper.

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