Burning Shoes and Pseudo-Rage

Burning Shoes and Psuedo-Rage

Commentary by Jim Killon

"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."

~~ Colin Kaepernick

Nike Inc. leaps into the media spotlight with its controversial new advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick, former U.S. football player. In the ad, in case you haven't seen it, is the caption "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." The short version of the controversy is that Kaepernick did not stand during the national anthem during his games but knelt to protest police brutality and other national injustices against people of color. Standing has been a tradition, though not required by law, to show respect to the United States values and respect to American service personnel in the military whose sacrifice secured those American values. Kaepernick created a national firestorm of conflicting opinions. While raising awareness for the injustices that people of color still endure daily, he also ignited the wrath of millions in the military, veterans and other patriotic citizens, including President Donald Trump. Then Nike brought him into their fold and public outrage against the company went viral. Calls for boycott of Nike products and burning their already purchased shoes. Burning shoes you already paid for to protest a company's ad is akin to setting your own money on fire to protest the Federal Reserve interest rates.

785 million people in the world are hungry, even starving. Most of them are children. Nearly 1/2 of the world's population ? more than 3 billion people ? live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme impoverishment ? less than $1.25 a day. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to impoverishment.

Americans are burning $70 shoes while we see kids everyday wearing recycled pieces of tires just to have footwear. The psuedo- concern will surely pass. Nike stock will soar due to the attention just as United Airlines, Equifax and Wells Fargo's did after their controversies. We live in a superficial, bark but not bite, five second attention span world. Destitute children around the globe will continue to die. Imagine if the millions of people enraged over the actions of a shoe company and an ex- football player redirected their energies to solving the actual issues that plague the world. Three dollars would put a pair of shoes on a destitute child. How do I know? Changes for New Hope has acquired several hundred pairs for them. You can't get a little bit pregnant. Either the injustices of the world appall you into action or you are just part of a crowd that shakes their heads, burns their sneakers and goes to lunch.