JULY 16, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A15
Athletes who protest the flag are
playing right into China's hands
PUBLIC SQUARE welcomes all points of view. Published submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Keizertimes
The heat is on
By JIM PARR
It wasn’t a singular event such as sunshine
alone that caused our recent searing heat
spell.
It was instead a combination and timing of
weather patterns occurring exactly at the sum-
mer solstice which provided our longest daily
exposure to sunshine along with the shortest
nights of the year. Thus, with long cloud-free
days and very short nights, there was little
opportunity for the nights to cool off. Each
day began with a morning a little warmer than
the previous day. Also requisite to the mix
was an upper atmospheric pattern that, once
established, was very persistent and resistant
to change. This pattern warmed the upper and
mid-levels of the atmosphere and the unre-
lenting sunshine baked the surface. Typical
with this weather pattern, a warming, light
northeast wind added heat to the mix. Global
warming likely provided an additional two or
so degrees to the daily maximum temperature
and as we now know, the heat was deadly.
Had the hot spell occurred in mid-August,
the longer nights would have provided more
time for cooling and the daily high tempera-
tures would have been less extreme. As it
was, several records for our area were bro-
ken including daily high temperatures and
the speed and extent of the cool-down that
occurred when the sea breeze finally broke
through and displaced the hot unstable air at
the surface.
Can it happen again you might wonder?
A similar heat spell (heat-dome) occurred in
Guest
COLUMN
the summer of 1936 but it was centered further
east. The prairies of Canada and the upper
Midwest took the brunt of the heat that time
with many records being broken throughout
the southern tier of Canada.
Ironically, the upper atmospheric wind
pattern that causes these hot spells is the
same jet stream that brings the dreaded, very
cold, long lasting and infamous “polar vortex”
during winter. The ”heat dome” transports air
masses from the far south northward while the
“polar vortex” transports air masses from the
far north southward. Both patterns can occur
during any time of a year but they bring and
generate extreme weather when they occur at
or near the solstices.
Climate change or global warming is
upon us and changes already set in motion
will be with us for many decades. To reverse
or limit this trend will require modern societ-
ies to make major changes to the way we live.
Primarily, we will have to use far less fossil
fuel and this will mean less driving and flying,
habits that we will find hard to give up. Are we
capable of change? Are we willing to adapt to
a simpler way of life? Hopefully we will have
the will to do so for the sake of our young peo-
ple. To do nothing puts the long term survival
of mankind in doubt.
(Jim Parr lives in Keizer.)
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By MARC A. THIESSEN
The U.S. women’s national soccer
team is denying team members turned
their backs on a 98-year-old World War
II veteran as he played the national
anthem before an exhibition game,
claiming that some players were sim-
ply looking at the flag at the other end
of the stadium. “Get your facts straight
before you assume anything,” U.S. mid-
fielder Carli Lloyd tweeted.
Hmm, why would anyone assume
that the players were showing disre-
spect during the playing of our national
anthem? Maybe it’s because, long
before U.S. track and field athlete Gwen
Berry turned her back on the flag while
the national anthem played, it was the
U.S. national women’s soccer team that
was demanding the right to protest the
anthem.
Maybe it’s because in 2016, U.S.
co-captain Megan Rapinoe refused to
stand during a national team game
against Thailand. Maybe it’s because
in 2019 Rapinoe refused to place her
hand over her heart during the anthem,
declaring “I’ll probably never put my
hand over my heart. I’ll probably never
sing the national anthem again.”
Maybe it’s because in 2020 the
national team players issued a joint
statement demanding that U.S. Soccer
repeal its policy requiring them to
“stand respectfully” during the anthem
—and U.S. Soccer capitulated to the
players’ demands. Maybe it’s because
last November, nine of the team’s 11
starting players kneeled during the
playing of national anthem before their
game against the Netherlands, and
then seven of the starting 11 players
took a knee during the anthem before
a game against Columbia in January.
Given this history, it’s no surprise
that so many assumed the players were
showing disrespect during the play-
ing of the anthem during a game with
Mexico last week. Because they had
been agitating for the right to do so for
years.
In a statement, U.S. Soccer said that
none of the players “turned their back
on WWII Veteran Pete DuPré during
tonight’s anthem” adding “the players
all love Pete.” Note the statement didn’t
say the players would never disrespect
the American flag—because that would
be demonstrably untrue. The team
seems most upset at the notion that
anyone thought they had shown dis-
respect to a sweet old man like Pete.
What they don’t seem to understand
is that when they protest the flag, they
show disrespect for Pete and all the vet-
erans who fought under that flag. They
show disrespect for all of Pete’s com-
rades who sacrificed their lives so they
could have the freedom to play a kids’
game for a living.
It’s one thing for players to protest
the anthem on their own free time. But
it’s quite another to do so while play-
ing on the international stage for Team
USA. With both the summer and win-
ter Olympic Games set to take place
during the coming year, athletes should
not be allowed to protest the stars and
other
VOICES
stripes while wearing the stars and
stripes. If you can’t show respect for the
U.S. national anthem, then don’t play
for the U.S. national team.
Indeed, American athletes who
insist on protesting their own country
on the international stage are playing
right into the hands of the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP), which will
host the Winter Olympics in 2022.
Just as Nazi Germany used the 1936
Olympics to legitimize it murderous
regime, Communist China sees the
Olympic Games as an opportunity
to increase its global legitimacy and
deflect attention from its brutal sup-
pression of freedom in Hong Kong and
its genocide against Uyghur Muslims.
During a U.S.-China summit
in Anchorage earlier this year, the head
of the Chinese delegation, Yang Jiechi,
laid out the Communist Party line: The
Black Lives Matter movement shows
that “the challenges facing the United
States in human rights are deep-
seated” and that “many people within
the United States actually have little
confidence in the democracy of the
United States.” Therefore, Yang said,
“it is important for the United States
to change its own image and to stop
advancing its own democracy in the
rest of the world.”
If U.S. athletes protest the national
anthem in Beijing, they will be echoing
this Chinese Communist propaganda.
Instead, maybe they should focus their
protests on China’s systematic rape
and forced sterilization of Uyghur
women. Or perhaps they could call out
their own corporate sponsors, such as
Nike, which has been credibly impli-
cated in the use of Uyghur forced labor
and has lobbied Congress to water
down the bipartisan Uyghur Forced
Labor Prevention Act, which would ban
imported goods made with forced labor
in China’s Xinjiang region. Unlike
woke anthem protests, that would be
an act of real courage -- and perhaps
even some personal sacrifice.
(Washington Post)
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