Bravo Colin Kaepernick!
2016Jeff Mackler 2016-09Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 3 →
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Jeff Mackler is Socialist Action’s candi date for U.S. president in 2016.
an Francisco 49er superstar quar racist establishment when he “took a knee” rather than stand and salute the American flag during the playing of the national anthem on Aug. 26 before the 49ers final pre-season game against the San Diego Chargers.
This was the fourth time, but the first in uniform during this year’s pre-season games, that Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to the Super Bowl in the 2012 sea son and to the N.F.C. championship game in 2013, refused to stand.
Kaepernick, who is biracial, said dur ing a post-game media conference, “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 peo ple getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
After recovering from several injuries and three surgeries since 2014, Kaepe rnick will likely be the 49ers’ back-up quarterback as the 2016 season begins.
Kaepernick has been pilloried by rac ist bigots across the country but has also received wide support among 49er fans and social justice activists. He was joined in his refusal to stand by 49er teammate Eric Reid. The following week, Seattle Seahawk cornerback Jeremy Lane, simi larly refused to stand during the Na tional Anthem in order to “stand beside” Kaepernick.
Megan Rapinoe, one of America’s most prominent female soccer players, also knelt during a National Women’s Soccer League match a few days later stating that she was “disgusted by how Kaepe rnick has been treated” and would con tinue to kneel throughout the season.”
In an article entitled, “Insulting Colin Kaepernick says more about our patrio tism than his,” the National Basketball Association’s all-time leading scorer, Ka reem Abdul Jabbar aptly noted: “What should horrify Americans is not Kaepe rnick’s choice to remain seated during the national anthem, but that nearly 50 years after Ali was banned from boxing
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Tony Savino / Socialist Action (Photo) Socialist Action correspondent TONY SAVINO reported on the condition of Haitian workers deported from the Dominican Republic:
“The conditions of the [refugee] camps are abysmal. People are literally starving to death. The Haitian government is criminally negligent. The occupation forces are not to be found.
“And now there is a perfect storm with the introduction of cholera in the camps; challenged immune systems from malnutrition, no sanitation and no place to wash one’s hands. The slow-motion genocide has gone from a crawl to a sprint.”
The UN says it will announce a plan to address the epi demic within two months.
Scientific studies concluded that in 2010 the UN’s Ne pal contingent of the ongoing U.S./UN military occupa tion of Haiti had disregarded health practices and UN guidelines by dumping human feces into a tributary of the Artibonite River. The Artibonite runs through Hai ti, providing irrigation and drinking water. Cholera, an easily curable disease that attacks the digestive system, spread like wildfire. The deaths in Haiti are comparable in number to all the deaths attributed to the Ebola epi demic in West Africa in 2014.
Cholera victims suffer from dehydration caused by se vere diarrhea or vomiting, which can be overcome by supplying clean water—which was not provided by the well-funded military occupation. Scientists have found that the epidemic could have been prevented with a ba