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Our View

Lawmakers calling out UA anthem protesters

It was certainly refreshing to learn that we have at least a few state politicians with the intestinal fortitude to take a tough stand against the University of Arkansas officials for supporting six women’s basketball players who knelt during the national anthem recently.

Several Republican lawmakers are now threatening to disrupt funding for the state’s largest university, a threat we certainly know liberal Democrat lawmakers will criticize. For example, Democrat Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, whose district includes the UofA said, “Cutting the university’s budget in response to the athletes exercising their First Amendment rights is ridiculous and irresponsible.”

This ridiculous and outrageous display of total disrespect by these student athletes mimics other collegiate and professional athletes nationwide who have refused to stand during the anthem.

These women said they put on this public display to protest police killings of blacks and other minoritygroup members, regardless of the fact that the majority of such tragic situations were ruled justified and in self-defense. It also needs to be mentioned that women’s basketball Coach Jimmy Dykes, Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long and UofA Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz supported this disgusting display in what they said was their right to express their feelings.

The public stunt prompted angry reaction from many fans followed by at least three Republican lawmakers taking to the social media to criticize the school.

Sen. Alan Clark of Lonsdale, Rep. Kim Hammer of Benton and Rep. Laurie Rushing of Hot Springs suggested they would either decline to increase the university budget or cut it. Now, in all reality, they realize their chances of getting that done are slim to none but, the fact of the matter is, they at least stepped forward and publicly denounced this absurd behavior as well as the actions of university staff.

We also have to commend Speaker of the House Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia who said he plans to speak to UofA officials about “unintended consequences,” of their actions.

It appears Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, did the typical political cop-out routine by simply not responding to requests for comments on the incident.

That is disappointing for sure.

It was interesting to note that a spokesman for the University denied that anyone on staff told the players to kneel before the game and were under no direction to do so.

These public universities have become breeding grounds for radicalism and it is about time we hear at least a handful of politicians publicly denounce such controversial behavior.

In defense of our law enforcement community we are ashamed that this state’s largest public university tolerates total disrespect for the men and women who risk their lives to do a nasty and unappreciated job.

As it has been said many, many times, what about “police lives matter?” And where are all these shallowminded protesters showing concern for all the police officers murdered by racially-motivated thugs and criminals for no reason than pure and simple hate.

Again, while we know little will become of the threats from these honorable politicians, we know their point was made very clearly and we commend them for that.