Admiral Harry Harris and his “burn” on Colin Kaepernick
TSO sends us a link from CNN in regards to a speech given by Pacific Command Commander Admiral Harry Harris at Pearl Harbor yesterday:
Admiral Harry Harris decided to slip in an apparent jab at noted national anthem protester Colin Kaepernick.
“You can bet that the men and women we honor today, and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago, never took a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played,” he said.
The statement was met by thunderous applause by the folks in attendance. You can see the video at the CNN link above.
Category: Navy
Shack!!!
Fuck yeah!!
^^^x 1,000^^^
He shoots, he scores!
You go admiral!!
And those men and women 75 years ago didn’t have to worry what black folks thought about the flag because they didn’t serve alongside blacks in any sort of equal capacity. They didn’t even have the protection of their voting rights codified into Federal law, it would be 24 years before that took place…
But hey way to make a point I guess….
Yep. Excuse every ridiculous behavior based on past butt hurts suffered by folks of your own skin tone. Not you personally.
Nice
I understand your point, and I’m certain Kaepernick’s gesture has nothing to do with the historical mistreatment of blacks.
In a public speech the Admiral ought to be above that, especially in light of how the military treated blacks at the time. Making the comparison about a black man protesting mistreatment of blacks with people who served during segregation when black pilots with sleeping car train tickets weren’t allowed in either the sleeping cars or the dining cars hardly makes a properly salient point.
Just my opinion, Kaepernick’s a douche. Karma is dealing with him appropriately right now….beyond that speeches about the brave men and women of WW2 and the amazing sacrifices made should stay on point…..
VOV:
Please point out where ADM Harris specifically names Colin Kaepernick and his ‘protests’ as the object of his comments in his speech.
As Jonn mentioned Kaepernick in the title of this thread, I thought it was fair game to respond in kind…sorry if that offends your sense of fair play.
‘Fair play’? What are you talking about?
My point is that ADM Harris did not specifically name Colin Kaepernick anywhere in his speech. (If you still believe otherwise, please point out exactly where he did so.)
Therefore, how do you come to this conclusion in your comment above: ‘Making the comparison about a black man protesting mistreatment of blacks with people who served during segregation when black pilots with sleeping car train tickets weren’t allowed in either the sleeping cars or the dining cars hardly makes a properly salient point.’?
Again, ADM Harris did not refer to Kaepernick in his speech, nor did he make that ‘comparison’ in his speech.
Starting with the CNN report, there appears to be an excess of assumption and inference being applied here that has been used to intentionally mischaracterize what ADM Harris actually said.
If you don’t want to believe the Admiral was talking about pro athletes that’s certainly your prerogative…who do you suppose he was talking about taking a knee though? The Girl Scouts?
The admiral stated quite clearly those folks didn’t take a knee…he’s right they didn’t….and some of them couldn’t eat at the same lunch counter or serve alongside each other either which was my point, I wonder why he didn’t choose to make that point and just made a point about someone (apparently some unknown someone, somewhere, since he didn’t say the US maybe he meant in Antarctica or something) taking a knee…a great mystery no doubt.
OK; I ‘chieu hoi’. You win.
However, please consider that according to the CNN report, this is all that the Admiral said: ‘You can bet that the men and women we honor today, and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago, never took a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played.’
No Kaepernick, no racial references, no professional athletes, no lunch counters, no Girl Scouts, and no mysterious kneelers in Antarctica are mentioned in that statement. It’s just a straight-forward statement that ‘the men and women we honor today, and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago, never took a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played’.
Nothing more; nothing less. Looks to me like he’s simply honoring those who were at Pearl Harbor during the attack.
But that’s OK. Go ahead and make ADM Harris’s words mean whatever you want them to mean, or perhaps need them to mean.
As I said above, starting with the CNN report, there appears to be an excess of assumption and inference being applied here that has been used to intentionally mischaracterize what ADM Harris actually said.
Perhaps that is because people who seek to find offense in everything that they see, hear, or experience are usually successful in doing so, regardless of what they have to do in order to get there.
I don’t need them to mean anything Mick, his words meant what they said. I stated that I recognize his words of admiration for the greatest generation and I echo that sentiment as my own family served and lost during WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and served in the GWOT including my own children…
Perhaps you’re right perhaps he only meant they didn’t take a knee…but in the context of today’s headlines those words have more meaning than simply taking a knee or maybe they don’t who knows.
I’m no genius that much is quite clear, but at the end of the day context tends to matter. It’s interesting that because so many agree with the Admiral’s words it’s fine they were said. I wonder if so much latitude were shown had he stated support for those who take a knee reminding us of our less than best moments.
In any event no hard feelings on my end, and I apologize if my words seemed offensive, I should do a better job at not being a douche myself. Thank you for engaging in a spirited conversation, it would have been far more fun with a few adult beverages in hand….
Best to you…
No worries, VOV; best to you as well.
Semper Fi.
I can hear you at a friend’s birthday party, VOV: “Happy birthday, pal. You’re a year closer to death. Enjoy.”
At some point and time you and folks that think like you think need to move beyond the past and live in the here and now. The butt hurt kneelers have nobody to blame for the way the world is now then themselves and their belief we owe them something. They are disrespecting the sacrificing of the greatest generation on earth and nobody id subtracting from those sacrifices by calling out what color they were. Except you. You are drawing attention to the past that isn’t relative to today. The Admiral did good. America will continue to heal and grow. It will heal much faster if you quit dragging the past into the present.
Excellent point. Very good chance that the Admiral wasn’t talking about Kaepernick at all with his “take a knee” reference.
Protesting (whatever) by refusing to stand for the national anthem long predates this year (and Kaepernick). And while I can’t say how common the phrase is in the Navy, the phase “take a knee” is commonly used in the Army to mean “take a break”. As a FO, the man will certainly have heard it in a prior joint assignment.
The man may well have been referring to Kapernik and others’ recent protests. But it’s entirely possible he wasn’t.
I took it to mean all that are ‘taking a knee’ as well as those for years who refuse to stand (or never were taught that you ought to stand) – reference the much circulated photo of an old vet propping him self up to stand from his wheel-chair at a parade for a color guard while most other attendees remain sitting.
I like your open mindedness to this. There should not have been a rush to judgement. Al
Martin Luther King was targeted by John Edgar Hoover as an enemy to this country due to his non violent stance for civil rights. Was it OK then or now?
Not in my book certainly…
Really? Popular culture and the media we all know and love (to hate) had a grand old time making saints of the John F and Bobby Kennedy and a devil of Hoover. As usual, depending upon what one reads, is told, and wants to believe, “fact” emerges. Here’s something from the other side that might interest you and VOV.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/what-really-happened-between-j-edgar-hoover-and-mlk-jr/248319/
Hmm. It’s 1963, height of the Cold War, a few months after both the Berlin and Cuban Missile Crises. Dr. King has become a major American social and political leader. And it turns out that two of Dr. King’s closest associates are members/former members of the CPUSA – and one of the two reportedly is meeting regularly with a known KGB agent.
Yep, must have been due to racial persecution. I mean, really – what other reason could Hoover possibly have to keep tabs on a prominent American found to have close Communist associates, one of whom was in periodic contact with a known KGB agent, at the height of the Cold War? Oh, and ignore the fact that the Kennedys ordered Hoover to wiretap King’s phones – obviously Hoover maneuvered them into doing that!
For those who are “perception-challenged” – yes, that last para is pure sarcasm. Hoover was such an anti-Communist that he’d have wiretapped his own mother’s phone if he suspected her of Communist connections.
I’m glad you took the time to read that. It has come to be an agreed-upon truth that Hoover was a director who operated independently of the administrations he served. He took orders. Some he took happily, some he did not, but this notion that he owned his bosses is rather silly.
Yes, and I believe the Admiral was including the cook, a black man who manned an antiaircraft gun, in his ‘did not take a knee’ speech.
Yep I believe Dorie Miller was the recipient of the Navy Cross for his actions that day.
He was indeed, I’m in Djibouti and every day I eat at the galley named in his honor. What an impressive story, it’s too bad he didn’t survive the war to tell it himself.
The way my father related it was that when he was with the 103rd and a Panzer or 88 was being a mite troublesome, they were very glad to see the tank killers roll up.
The tank killers were an all-black crewed group.
They served alongside – and depended upon them to protect them.
Were there inequities? Of course. But the military has been far in advance of society in reducing or removing those inequities.
We can be sure that those American soldiers of all skin tones did not take a knee or fail to stand. They knew there were problems in society, but did not stop being Americans because of it.
I believe that is probably what Admiral Harris intended.
And here we are at the end of 2016 and we still do not have the equivalent progress seen by blacks on the USS Mason being extended to the other socially oppressed groups.
Still waiting for the female surface combatant to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf and the transgendered SSBN deterrent patrol.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the transgendered SSBN patrol. Once the confused individual begins their drug therapy in advance of getting rebuilt, or snipped, I believe they become non-deployable.
This admiral crossed the line. PERIOD. To make a POLITICAL statement on a day such as that was simply wrong. Political opinions of active duty personnel on this day especially should not be condoned. A reminder, his command is made up of many sailors and marines of different ethnicities. He should be fucking relieved. As a reminder there were countless acts of bravery on that day. My father also served as a Black sailor during WW II onboard the USS FDR. This admirals comments should not be condoned. My opinion.
As a foitnote do you all Remember this sailor?
http://americacomesalive.com/2012/02/20/dorie-miller-1919-1943-hero-of-world-war-ii/
Your response is certainly more succinct than mine, I found the Admiral’s remarks to be timed inappropriately as well. That was my only point.
For the record, while I don’t much care for the NFL and I think Kaepernick has better options available to him for protesting I don’t begrudge his right to do so nor would I begrudge his team their right to terminate his contract. I don’t have to agree with the manner in which you or anyone else chooses to protest to respect the simple fact that you have the right to do so regardless of my feelings on the topic.
I appreciate your insight sir. I am also a retired Marine, and I found this officers remarks distasteful and insensitive to his command and the Armed Forces. The heroics of many that were subjected to bias while in the military during WW II and other wars and conflicts seemed to be lost on him.
USMC8151,
While I respect your opinion, the fact of the matter is that your father and Dorie Miller did not take “a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played.”
They went out against all odds and in far too many cases incredible prejudices and defended the flag and the country for which it stands.
Your father’s “demonstration” against the policies of the US when it came to race (as well as that of Miller and countless others) was not to protest, not to whine, and not to kneel but to stand up and prove what he never should have had to prove in the first place – that he, Miller and others were Americans ready, willing and able to fight and die for the country.
The comparison by the Admiral is, in my opinion, apt and correct. Men and women did not fall to a knee, but stood up proudly and said “I’m going to protect this country even though there are people within it who don’t like me for the color of my skin.”
In WWII, men and women of all races stood together for a common goal. Their “protest” was not passive, but active. Many men who had never been exposed to other races came out of the military with different views on race and race relations. That happened because of the bravery of men and women, and not the symbolic and totally empty “protest” before a sporting match.
If anything, we should look at the bravery and valor displayed by the men and women of color in WWII as the way of changing attitudes. They are the ones we should emulate and to whom we should listen.
Yeah, he’s not doing it because of that. He’s doing it because he has an activist girlfriend who keeps his balls in her purse and tells him what to say.
The important part is that even the Blacks that fought in the military or just lived in those days never took a knee or refused to stand for the National Anthem.
America isn’t perfect, but we fought a war amongst ourselves to rid these shores of the scourge of slavery.
That in itself is indicative of the character of America herself and the people that live in this great country.
Many of our ancestors fought in that war, some for the Union others for the Confederacy, my family ran an underground station stop for freed slaves as they made their way to Canada for real freedom. Why should anyone denigrate any of us that came from such stock.
Slavery continues to this day in many countries and none of them would go to war to end the practice.
Irregardless of the political timing, the fact that he said something that so many of us would like to say makes it fine in my book.
Just because we’d all like to say it doesn’t make it appropriate in this setting, I suspect you’d be less enthusiastic if he’d come out in favor of Kaepernick’s protest during his speech as would the crowd he was addressing.
We can agree to disagree that he chose an appropriate place to make his point.
I’ve mentioned several times that I don’t like the NFL or Kaepernick. That was never my point, whether we like it or not Kaepernick’s protest is ostensibly aimed at racial prejudice which existed systemically in 1941 military and civilian life…it’s interesting that the Admiral chose to make a point about a protest today while describing a time when blacks in parts of the US might have been lynched for protesting.
Maybe it does apply a bit here too? Many people have mentioned the indecencies suffered by blacks in history, especially those who served then. Who continued to serve in spite of WAY worse conditions than currently applies to Kaepernick – and did not take a knee or fail to render respect to the flag. Those men who fought, and died for a country that treated them less because it was still home.
Or maybe not – maybe they didn’t take a knee because they would have been attacked. I’m honestly not sure.
I think there is something positive in the Admiral’s speech – Patriotism is something you feel for your country and is something that seemingly is dying out. I believe he was exemplifying their service to show as an example and contrasting it by the examples we have today.
The only crack in that argument is that during that time blacks and other minorities still showed respect for the flag. Perhaps they grasped the fact that despite it’s segregationist policies the US was still the best country in the world.
Too bad Dory Miller isn’t around for comments.
Kudos to the Admiral and fuck that washed up shit bag Kapernick.
Oh and they actually won too. Unlike the 1-11 49ers. lol
+500
And there it is.
We need a like button again.
Colin Kaepernick….not that you’re going to read this but I feel the need to say it anyway….
HOW’S YOUR ASS TASTE? TONGUING THAT BENCH. I HOPE YOU GET SPLINTERS.
┌∩┐(ಠ_ಠ)┌∩┐
And the NFL Wonders why it’s ratings are in the crapper. Maybe they should wake up
Kaepernick does come up in conversation here at the office on occasion. As most here are either active duty Nave, or retired/former Navy, you can imagine how high the esteem is for him.
Perhaps “esteem” is a poor word choice.
I wonder how long it will take for him to be relived of command or demoted by the PC police?
BZ, Admiral!
“You can bet that the men and women we honor today, and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago, never took a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played.”
Let’s see. Non whites certainly had a beef. Women certainly had a beef. Who else can we place on the list for unequal treatment and discrimination in 1941? Come on. There has to be more. We need to ensure that whenever someone speaks ill of those who would disparage the country or her flag that we see the world through the eyes of those who were victims of institutional or societal wrongs that existed at the time. Damn. Americans of Japanese descent. Nearly forgot about them. Has to be more that the insensitive admiral failed to consider. Damn. head slap. Gays! Lesbians! Gotta be more…
Add Native Americans c/o Warrior 0369.
Whether I agree with the good Admiral or not, I think the statement about taking a knee was inappropriate.
To me there’s nothing that cheapens a memorial service more than someone using it as their personal soap box for whatever bee is in their bonnet at that particular time. It’s basically akin to that acquaintance or co worker or distant family member that we all have to uses every news story as an opportunity to harangue us with his personal political beliefs.
A memorial like this should have a timeless quality to it – it should sound the same in 50 years as it does today. Inserting a contemporary political issue (one that will doubtless be long forgotten in a few years) comes across as petty and is beneath the dignity of the event.
The admiral should be commended for having the stones to say what he did but of course some will read into it an anti black theme because….that is what we have wrought with our tolerance for bad behavior and down right hate in the guise of social justice.
Kopperdick is a talented but confused young man who has become radicalized by his GF into a pointless and alienating gesture that leaves him a laughing stock.
Plenty of black men and women who are worthy of listening to and emulating; he is not one of them.
Patiotism knows no color and to imply otherwise is disgracefull.
MJ. The commeroration ceremonies lasted for days. It was not a funeral. There were bands, including jazz being played, and a basketball game–and separately, privately, there were memorials, such as the wreath-laying ceremony and the internment of ashes. Watch the video. It’s only 54 seconds long. Watch as the handful of Pearl Harbor survivors struggle to their feet to join the standing ovation for the admiral’s statement. They sure knew where they were. They weren’t offended b/c the commemoration, as I said, is not a memorial service, whether you think it ought to be or not.
I’m going to make one point here then I’m going to shut my mouth….For all of you believing the Admiral’s remarks were off course and inserting every scenario possible into his meaning I offer you another meaning….My Ancestors never took a knee, don’t riot in the streets for perceived wrongs or think and feel we should receive money from the white man. We simply stay chained to the reservations. How many years were we deprived of the right to pray? How many years were we deprived of the right to vote or own property? Some of my Ancestors were “Code Talkers” and they certainly didn’t shirk their duties or take a knee. I’m a retired Marine 1stSgt and I’ll never take a knee because of the way my Ancestors were treated. Why do any of you believe the black people have anymore rights than mine? Maybe the Admiral was referring to my People. Once we were allowed to be citizens we tried to be good ones….Those knee benders and protesters need a moccasin up their butt and a tomahawk upside their head….
Looks like some are finally saying what they think without the fear of the SJW slapdown that occurred to them under Obama. There is a new sheriff in town to be sure