CARLTON PEAK…. Last week I touched on my not so positive feelings for the National Football League and honestly, I could have used double the column space I had to work with. What I found later in the week is that some scribes must have a type of mental telepathy working amongst them. The day before the regular season opener on Thursday eve, I came across two articles from some nationally prominent writers discussing some of the leagues contemporary challenges. Both columns were heavily into the head trauma issue that is facing football at this time, and in addition, one of them spoke to some major declines in youth football enrollment. He concluded that increasing numbers of parents have decided the risk of traumatic head injury just isn’t worth it. This issue very much concerns me about my beloved amateur hockey as well. 

Neither did I touch on the continuing saga of QB Colin Kaepernick. He still hasn’t been signed to even a tryout contract of any type despite having the 17th best QB rating in the league last season. There is little doubt that the owners have blacklisted him and it appears that his NFL career may be over. What kind of happy horse manure is this? Yes, we all know of his National Anthem protests from last year. And as I wrote in the past, I don’t have a problem with it. He has chosen to sit out the anthem to protest the societal treatment of Black Americans including the murders of several blacks by law enforcement in this country and moreover, he is exercising his 1st Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of speech and expression. You might not like the manner or the venue of where he chose to do this, but if you are against this or his right to do so I suggest that you don’t know of or understand our American ideals and/or rights. 

Then there’s that little issue of the Star Spangled Banner being a racist song. Wait! You didn’t know that? That’s because those verses have been conveniently removed from the popular shortened version we sing at sporting events and elsewhere. Look it up. Do that and then tell me how you would feel about the song if you were a person of color. Change it to America the Beautiful and I’m good again. Plus I’m fairly sick and tired of the “bombs bursting in air” too. The Kaepernick matter is also tinged with racism in and of itself. The NFL owners are a bunch of old fart white guy elitists. Seven of these chaps donated $1mil each to the Inauguration for Donald Trump. I won’t take you by the hand, and don’t need to, you can connect the dots. You make the call, mine is that upwards of ten clubs could have upgraded at the QB position by signing Kaepernick but have chosen not to. I think I know why….

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO this week we witnessed the worst mass crime ever perpetrated upon an innocent public short of a war crime or the Holocaust. Many refer to this event as an act of Terror, some call it an act of war, or even a mass murder scene. I personally waver between those three descriptions because as much as I have read about this event, as many documentaries as I have watched and debates I have engaged in or witnessed, I’ve not been able to make up my mind. In addition, our own morally bankrupt, dishonest, corrupt Government consisting of some of the biggest criminals in the history of Man have yet to put forth a credible, truthful version of what really happened that day and why. And these days, any talk of an eventual truth letting of the events that created this event, how they unfolded and of what happened afterward rarely get discussed let alone any serious movement toward that end. They are as faded as the taillights on a rocket headed for Mars. Our glorious Government wasn’t moved to tell us what they knew when the topic was still in the frontal lobes of the populace and now it appears that most of the public have let go of the issue which is just what a corrupted body politic wants in a situation of this magnitude.

I can hear some teeth grinding right now. Oh, this guy is a conspiracy theorist. My response to that is that if a matter appears that it could have been borne of conspiracy and is surrounded by a lack of credible facts and evidence then by all means, call me a conspiracy wonk. I will never be one of the weak minded blind patriots that don’t have the courage to question a Government that is out of control. In fact the Founding Fathers warned against those who would be docile in their defense of our nation. Jefferson wrote that; “Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty”. Franklin wrote that “those who would give up liberty for some safety deserve neither liberty or safety”. Can you say Patriot Act? It basically inverts one of our most basic liberties against us. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law is now guilty until proven innocent whether it’s by the TSA or a simple drug test in order to obtain employment and more. We the Sheep have bowed down and accepted this malarkey as being just the way it is. What’s next?

We live in times of mainstream media, corporate news, misinformation and disinformation and few citizens seem inclined to ask questions or dig for truth. In fact, I believe one of our biggest dilemmas today lies within the sheer volume of the population that are willing to accept the first level of news reporting they hear in regard to an event or story. Too many citizens seem to be unwilling to seek the real story or truth about what might have happened. Corrupt Governments know this and act accordingly. So, what really happened on 9/11 and who was behind it? Sixteen years post event, I couldn’t tell you. And the people who DO know WON’T tell you. I see that as a huge problem, I view that as a threat to our democracy. 

You see, there are too many things that do not add up about this event. And it’s about time they did. Not solving this equation empowers those who are corrupted to go even further the next time around. I encourage you to read Dr. Kohl’s 9/11 article from last week. Read it, study it, memorize it. And then start asking questions… PEACE