The Anthem and the Kneelers

Today, President Trump disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from visiting the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory. He did so after reports circulated that the majority of black Eagles' players would not attend such a ceremony.

Full Text of the President's Letter

While I believe President Trump is acting in a childish manner, I also believe the players and the Eagles' owner, Jeffrey Lurie, are as well.

Here's the thing...
The players insist that the issue isn't with the anthem, and that they are justified in using the anthem as a platform to express their feelings (about the social issue du jour).
But it IS about the anthem, absolutely. They made it about the anthem.
The players could have chosen a million other times and places to express their views, but they chose to do so in a very visible way during the singing of the anthem at the beginning of games. Even after being told by millions of fans that this method of 'protest' was disrespectful and unwelcome, they continued to do so. When President Trump echoed this same sentiment to the players, they decided to jump on the media narrative that he's "racist" and "doesn't care about black people" and on and on. They now had a face to target with their displeasure, rather than simply the faceless millions who disagreed with their decision.

Whether you agree or disagree with the issues the players raised is irrelevant.
Their protests are NOT related to the First Amendment to the Constitution, and are NOT protected speech. Imagine you are out to dinner, and the waitress decides to stand on your table and denounce abortion activists.
Whether you agree or disagree with her stance doesn't matter; what matters is that she WILL lose her job forthwith, because 'protesting' at the workplace is not protected speech. This is SCOTUS-settled law.

The players made the issue about the anthem, and they chose to take on not only the President, but the millions of fans aligned against them for doing so. NFL ratings have dropped steadily since the start of the protests, and this is well-documented fact.

We're tired of being told that these social justice warriors know better than the rest of us.
We're tired of having this divisive lunacy shoved down our throats at every turn.
We're tired of being told we are racists because we don't agree with the method(s) of protest used by the 'aggrieved' who think they are the descendants of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, but really are nothing more than 1960's era rabble-rousers.

We're done.