LETTER An explanation for “taking the knee”
Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi apparently was unable to explain to his grandson just why the various athletes are “taking the knee” in his letter that appeared Thursday in the Observer-Reporter, or are otherwise exercising their free-speech rights in protest. It is because some people, by virtue of their skin color, have a very different life than Maggi or his grandson do by the happenstance of their skin color.
Black people, simply by virtue of not being white people, are likely to encounter problems which, clearly, Maggi has never faced, or he would know what to say to his grandson.
That is what you tell your descendants – that we aren’t really delivering “liberty and justice for all” that we promise in the Pledge of Allegiance, and be glad you don’t have to give them “the talk” that black parents routinely and regrettably have to give their offspring.
Maggi’s grandson is privileged right out of the starting gate, and so is Maggi himself. That he clearly does not recognize this is part of the problem.
Carole McIntyre
Waynesburg