The shootings in Buffalo and Uvalse has soured the Giants skipper on the directiong the Unted State is taking in reactoin to gun violence.
Like Golden State Warrior, Steve Kerr, the 47-year old from the San Fernando Valley in Southern California is disguted with the direction of the United States is going and until the country changes course he will at least temporarily refuse to be on the field for the anthemn.
Kapler wrote about it and gave the media the reason for his peaceful protest.
"I don't plan on coming out for the anthemn going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country. That will be the step. I don';t expect to move the needle neccessarily. It is just somethng I feel strongly enough about to take that step."
Kapler has spoken to Kerr briefly but has not discussed his actions or the heavy ourrage that Kerr expressed during an NBA press conference in which he challenged Ameirca to do something postive about growing gun violence in the schools.
Giants' manager did not take a knee jerk reaction to the incident. He took his time to process his thought before he put his views on social media and determined to take this action.
"What I wrote explains the rest of it. I was having a hard time articulating my thoughts to the shootings," Kapler said. "That day I went out there on the line. Sometimmes for me it takes time to put everything together. I was not in my best space mentally and I knew that it was in connection to some of the hypocrisy of the National Anthemn. How it coincided with the moment of silence and how those two things didn't sync up well. I couldn't make sense of it in real time."
Kapler has talked to some players "on an individual basis'," Kapler said. "I make allownces for any views.I always expect that keeping my side of the street clean is about expressing myself. Whatever happens from there, I really don't have much control over."
"For me the purpose of writing is having a chance to be clear with messaging," Kapler said. "Before the moment of silence I had never had any conversations with players. Those are personal choices. I support andy expressions 100 percent obviously. I believe in peaceful protests."
Although he had not had a long conversation with Kerr, Kapler thoufore ght the video was powerful.
Before the game Reds' Tommy Pham had Giants' Joc Pederson had heated words.
"It is something we take very seriously," Kapler said. "We are investigating it and finding out as much as we can as quickly as we can but I'm not prepared to discuss it."
Kapler's Blog is Below
Home of the Brave?
The day 19 children and 2 teachers were murdered, we held a moment of silence at sporting events around the country, then we played the national anthem, and we went on with our lives.
Players, staff and fans stood for the moment of silence, grieving the lives lost, and then we (myself included) continued to stand, proudly proclaiming ourselves the land of the free and the home of the brave. We didn’t stop to reflect on whether we are actually free and brave after this horrific event, we just stood at attention.
When I was the same age as the children in Uvalde, my father taught me to stand for the pledge of allegiance when I believed my country was representing its people well or to protest and stay seated when it wasn’t. I don’t believe it is representing us well right now.
This particular time, an 18 year old walked into a store, bought multiple assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, walked into a school with an armed resource officer and its own police district and was able to murder children for nearly an hour. Parents begged and pleaded with police officers to do something, police officers who had weapons and who receive nearly 40% of the city’s funding, as their children were being murdered.
We elect our politicians to represent our interests. Immediately following this shooting, we were told we needed locked doors and armed teachers. We were given thoughts and prayers. We were told it could have been worse, and we just need love.
But we weren’t given bravery, and we aren’t free. The police on the scene put a mother in handcuffs as she begged them to go in and save her children. They blocked parents trying to organize to charge in to stop the shooter, including a father who learned his daughter was murdered while he argued with the cops. We aren’t free when politicians decide that the lobbyist and gun industries are more important than our children’s freedom to go to school without needing bulletproof backpacks and active shooter drills.
I’m often struck before our games by the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents. We stand in honor of a country where we elect representatives to serve us, to thoughtfully consider and enact legislation that protects the interests of all the people in this country and to move this country forward towards the vision of the “shining city on the hill.” But instead, we thoughtlessly link our moment of silence and grief with the equally thoughtless display of celebration for a country that refuses to take up the concept of controlling the sale of weapons used nearly exclusively for the mass slaughter of human beings. We have our moment (over and over), and then we move on without demanding real change from the people we empower to make these changes. We stand, we bow our heads, and the people in power leave on recess, celebrating their own patriotism at every turn.
Every time I place my hand over my heart and remove my hat, I’m participating in a self congratulatory glorification of the ONLY country where these mass shootings take place. On Wednesday, I walked out onto the field, I listened to the announcement as we honored the victims in Uvalde. I bowed my head. I stood for the national anthem. Metallica riffed on City Connect guitars.
My brain said drop to a knee; my body didn’t listen. I wanted to walk back inside; instead I froze. I felt like a coward. I didn’t want to call attention to myself. I didn’t want to take away from the victims or their families. There was a baseball game, a rock band, the lights, the pageantry. I knew that thousands of people were using this game to escape the horrors of the world for just a little bit. I knew that thousands more wouldn’t understand the gesture and would take it as an offense to the military, to veterans, to themselves.
But I am not okay with the state of this country. I wish I hadn’t let my discomfort compromise my integrity. I wish that I could have demonstrated what I learned from my dad, that when you’re dissatisfied with your country, you let it be known through protest. The home of the brave should encourage this.
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