Balsy

There's no such thing as too long. Again, it forces you to consider something you possibly hadn't considered before, like the following: The military doesn't own the symbols of this country. Patriotism is not determined by military service. Both my grandfathers served in the military. As did my great grandfathers and my great uncle. Both of my grandfathers and my great uncle, whom I was rather close with, all didn't believe that pledges, anthems, and flags were a measure of patriotism that mattered. I know this from conversations I've had with them. They all believed it was what you do to support your fellow citizen, and the common welfare that matters. My grandfather (on my mother's side) refused to fly an american flag at his house because he was disgusted with McCarthyism, and swore to "high heaven, hell be in high water, and the great lord all mighty hath no fury" (as my mother and grandmother tell the story) if he would be declared unpatriotic for not flying a flag. He opposed segregation of the boy scouts. He opposed segregation in schools, and spent his public life (elementary school teacher, principal and later Education Department; and positive status in the community) to work to overturning both of those things. He was a great man. His service in the military wasn't what made him great (what he told me when I asked a child about it) but his dedication to his community, to making it a better place for everyone everyday. And I believe from what I know if him, he'd absolutely be supporting those kneeling in prayer during the national anthem. From what I know of him; hell he would have said we needed more of that!

This is fair. I respect this. I'm just trying to add some objectivity.

Because reading it would require you stepping outside of your bubble, and considering something you hadn't before.

This is a fallacy. Most immigrants come here legally. Well...unless you want to count the colonists, they were the first illegal immigrators. All you have to do is look up basic research on this, and you'll find answer to that. He's not decreeing it...it's a fact. See further comment below. And you're both missing the point. There is a segment of our society, our country, our nation; that did not come here willingly. So making saying "came here for opportunity and achieve" is frankly some colored glasses BS. Not only was that portion of our society brought here against their will, and for generations were sold as property; even after they were emancipated they were systematically disenfranchised because what...you expect freed property to be on the same level as the ones who used to own them? Perhaps under law...but in practice... Like sorry, this is a terrible take Keener. It completely ignores the reality. Yes there has been a lack of opportunity for minorities, historically (and on purpose), and hell...less than 50-years ago blacks and whites couldn't drink from the same coffee pot. You can't expect there not to be a level of inequality still there. Objectively. Now it may require some empathy, moving outside of your own bubble to an uncomfortable place, but yes it is objectively true.

I too am tired of this. How about we stop playing the National Anthem at sporting events. I don't go to sporting events to have someone else's idea of patriotism, and idolatry shoved down my throat. Which will be never. People are going to stop watching football? Indeed. The issue is that the President of The United States attacked the NFL. He made comments about officiating ruining the game. He made comments about player safety concerns ruining the game. He made comments about firing NFL players because they don't follow a very narrow brand of patriotism. This is why owners joined their teams locking arms, released statements etc. It's an opinion that kneeling, praying, locking arms etc... is not a patriotic thing to do and disrespectful. An opinion. And no one group of people dictates what is and is not patriotic. The irony of this all is: The President of the United States demanded that we should have respect for the free speech and protests of KKK Neo-Nazis (who were shouting the Jews will not replace us, Blood and Soil...and other provocative things...while defending a monument participation trophy to traitors who killed more American armed service men than any other single faction in history)...yet a bunch of Black men kneel/pray quietly...fire them immediately! Talk about "respect" for our servicemen... Yup. The problem is, it's a league of Millionaires that makes billions off of said millionaires. Their speech is going to carry a LOT more strength than some salaried individual in some nebulous company. Trying to restrict that free speech will never happen, especially if the millionaires support each other. I'm guessing the NFL could make it a bargaining issue in the next negotiation with the Union. Good luck burning all negotiation capital on that fight. But at the end of the day it's priorities people: silently kneeling, praying, locking arms during the national anthem is disrespectful? REALLY!? What's more disrespectful...kneeling and praying...or shooting unarmed black men during "routine" police stops....or planting drugs on people so that you can arrest them...or the character assassinations that take place on black victims, who were not convicted of crimes, to somehow get the public to agree with the justification as to why said unarmed black person was "dangerous". THAT is direspectful, and it's systemic, and a conversation we as a country should be having. THAT is more disrespectful to our flag and our servicemen than a bunch of people praying and kneeling during a song. Maybe you guys are right...maybe we have become a nation of snowflakes. My goodness I thought praying for the country during the national anthem would be a good thing. On a side note, I suppose I'll have to remember not to kneel at a catholic church the next time in one. Because from all of this, I've learned that kneeling is the most disrespectful, egregious thing a man can do.

You mean the year when we went 7-5 in the regular season and won our first Bowl game ever? I completely disagree. Most in the MAC had us finishing second behind Ohio, which is "Contending in the MAC". Yeah, that one. I only made the arbitrary "two year comparison" because you brought it up as a metric for EMU. We were basically in the exact same situation as them. Chris Creighton arguably had a worse success in order to get to a bowl game than we did: 2-10, 1-11 then 7-6 Bowl Loss. Can you imagine if we'd have that here? We'd fired the guy after those two seasons and repeated the failure wagon, allowing it continue to spin. Akron went 1-11, 5-7, 5-then 8-5. Arguably positioned better than that in the second 5-7 year (injuries derailed that season yet again) and then arguably positioned to repeat last year with a Bowl appearance if not, again, for injury. That IS competing in the MAC. I am currently unhappy, yes. I want more. But I'm not willing to pretend like Chris Creighton is somehow this great get we "could" have had. Everything you could point to say Creighton is great, we could find an equal comparison to Bowden's tenure here. I know injuries aren't an excuse...but Akron's been one hell of a snake-bitten organization. Like it's almost cursed. I'm tired of pulling my hair out in frustration. But I'm also worried to death that the people running athletics don't know what their doing. Do I really trust them to blow it up...again...and get it right?

Two years ago we looked like real contenders in the MAC. I do think you do have to er on the side of caution. Can this program really afford another iCoach? Bowden and Brookhart have achieved the same relative success. Lee Owens I've always been told was a "top" Akron coach...and yet he didn't see a winning season until his 5th season with the Zips. Then had the idiocy to fire him after a 7-5 season (of course, as has been recounted to me by others and reading MAC forums from 2003). Akron Zips football is a case study on what not to do. I do fear striking out. Every year a lose interest in Zips football, and I'm one of the young fans. I'm worried my zealotry fandom won't last another iCoach. Am I happy with Bowden? After Saturday's loss, I'm growing tired. But I've had more fun with Bowden teams than I've had with any other Zips football. So IDK what to think.

This is my watershed game. If we don't beat BGSU and get the monkey off our backs...

IDK if the TROY sidelines knows or not, the game is not over yet. To be celebrating like that. Please, Woody, shove it down their throats.

The defense holds them ALL second quarter until 2-min on the 7.

Damnit, Damnit, Damnit, Damnit, Damnit, Damnit, Damnit.

Announcers have completely flipped on Troy...

3:22, cmon Zips time for a BIG stop here!

If we can beat troy, we should play well against our MAC slate.

TOUCHDOWN!!!

LETS GO ZIPS

Nice Catch!!!

And that was pass interference...

So why don't we have MAC refs cooking the books for us?

How was that not intentional grounding...

Officiating blows... But we now got us a ballgame

I will take beating "bad" teams if it means getting 7-8 wins a season.

Haha fair enough. Though we never did make the bet soooooooo....

I probably don't understand. But it's all good.

Is that word missing an H or is are the oo's supposed to be an I...