I've been a fan of the Seahawks since Jim Zorn was the quarterback in 1976. I've seen years of ups and downs. I have fond memories of 1983 when we said opportunity Knox, and made our way to the AFC championship. I remember the Behring years and the 2-14 seasons, when he was trying to sell us off to California,, I remember when Paul Allen took the team, and voting for a new stadium so they would stay, and the Holmgren era, and losing a Superbowl, and then winning our first in 2013. Its been a long road.
That brings us today. It's 9-11. So many years ago, I had just come back home from Denver, I was working a job for my old roofing company underneath Sea-Tac airport. I drove to work, I was listening to Howard Stern on KISW, except he was on a delay, it was early, by schedule I got to work before the attack, so when I stepped out of the car, the crew was talking about it on the other stations. My whole world turned upside down. I was feeding a blast furnace, looking into the flames, and I saw around me the flames of war. When at last we had our break, I ran to the radio for any news I could find. When at last the shift was over, I went to the store, there was an Arabic clerk, and about 6 people in line, and the man was terrified. A part of me wanted to leap over the counter and throttle him, I was hurt, I was angry. It wasn't his fault. I knew that. I just wanted someone to blame.
When I think back to then, it brings me to today. This day is sacred, and I don't want to fight. There is a lot at stake, and I know that. I live in an African American Community in Memphis, and its shown me a lot. When I first moved here, I admit, I had some fears, and then one day I realized something. I'm a drifter, I was in the middle of the grunge scene in downtown Seattle. I was sitting outside a cash machine, and I was surrounded by African Americans, and I laughed. That was when I realized I was the scary person.
That is the real problem. We all think about ourselves, and we never try to look at the world through the eyes of others. People are people. That's where the left goes wrong, they spend to much time trying to pity minorities, and nobody wants pity. The right tries to villainize them, and that's worse, its all a feedback loop though. At the end of the day, people want dignity, and that's all I want. As Biden said, your job is your dignity. When you portray minorities as criminals and helpless, they don't want that, from either side, they just want to hold there head up high, and live in dignity.
So today, the Seahawks answered the whole debate on racial justice. I don't think anybody wants anybody to be shot. When it comes to justice, people support Black Lives Matter. What they don't like is the messaging. And in this the Team was divided. Richard Sherman has been criticized for saying all lives matter. Jeremy Lane and Baldwin both wanted to take a knee. So the team talked about it. Together they decided, that this was about the team. yes, they disagreed, and yet it was the team that mattered. So as a team they interlocked arms and stood together in unity, in honor of the legacy of Martin Luther King, in honor of the memory of the troops who have sacrificed so much for this freedom, and in honor of 9-11
God Bless America