Letters

Tip to Kap

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Kudos to Colin Kaepernick for using his national spotlight to protest social injustice and systematic racism. In case you’ve been under a rock, Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers quarterback and graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, refused to stand during the national anthem before a game on Aug. 26. When asked about it later, he said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Reaction to Kap’s protest action was, not surprisingly, vitriolic. Responses on social media and from conservative commentators and even other athletes has ranged from those who said things like politics has no place in professional sports— like football fans need more blinders—to those who think that the lack of compulsory attention to an old song is tantamount to high treason. (To be fair, this is sort of how I feel when people talk while “Born to Run” is on the radio.) Some of the responses were just plain racist, and others accused Kap of crying for attention because he isn’t as good as he was a few years ago when he led the Niners to the Super Bowl.

I never met Kap when he was at UNR, but from people I know who did know him, he apparently never seemed like the most enlightened guy—far from it, in fact. He now seems like a changed man. He has a bit of a scales-have-fallen-frommy-eyes look in recent interviews— like somebody took him out to the desert and gave him mescaline.

Anyway, the guy had to be fully aware of the negative reaction his protest would inspire, and he did it anyway. And incurring the wrath of meatheads for the sake of oppressed people—protesting in order to improve our country— sounds pretty patriotic to me. And now I have to have respect for a guy whose signature move is to kiss his own bicep.

—Brad Bynum bradb@newsreview.com

What’s the ‘etc.’?

Re “The Sucker State” (Left Foot Forward, Aug. 11):

I think the author is a little too easily insulted. Of all the modern day “robber barons” out there, I consider Musk to be very different. While others are politicking and manipulating the system to make their bucks, Musk is innovating and creating. I consider him a modern day Tom Edison.

Yes, Nevada is giving his company tons of tax breaks, but he is creating many jobs, etc. in the state. He is also bringing Nevada relevance in the modern technology-driven world, and a small part in making history. Viva Elon Musk.

Gil Gaus Kings Beach

Cut their allowance

Re “Disunited states” (cover story, August 11):

Recognizing the truth of Carol Cizauskas’s account of what occurred in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention, November’s election is too important to increase even slightly the possibility that Donald Trump might win.

Harking back to former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill’s statement that “money is the mothers milk of politics,” it appears that a better strategy for effecting reform within the Democratic Party would be to cut off the National Committee’s money.

Since the primary campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination began, I have not donated in response to requests from the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, et al., and have made donations only in response to appeals from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, such as to Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s opponent in the Florida primary.

Cutting off the Democratic National Committee’s funds will be the most effective way to ensure that its partiality during 2016 does not repeat during 2020.

Donald Schreiber Incline Village

Question Two

Regarding the incessant hysteria about legalizing pot—having smoked it for 49 years now, I think it is about time to legalize. So, if you don’t like it, then don’t smoke it.

And I hope all you stoners will get off the couch and go vote! Because you did not vote in ’06, legalization lost by about 6 percent.

Don’t you think it’s time to get into the real world and quit pretending it’s still 1950? And no, it should not be legal for minors. Their brains are not yet fully developed, in my humble opinion.

Enough hysteria, please. We have much more serious problems in this world than getting your undies in a bunch because someone is smoking a joint. Geeez already.

And please Santa, give us a brand-new Congress this year, one that will actually do something?

Craig Bergland Reno

Take a pencil to the polls

We face a tough election choice. Donald Trump may be too unstable to trust with the nuclear trigger. Hillary Clinton seems to support the Iran deal that allows a 24-day waiting period before inspecting a suspected site. Some experts say that’s not a problem, but other experts say it is.

There is an alternative, though, and that is to write in Ted Cruz for President.

Alex Sokolow Santa Monica

Editor’s note: Seven states do not permit write-in votes. Nevada is one of them.

ERIK HollAND

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