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The riot on the U.S. Capitol was solely one of many components that led Kentucky basketball gamers to knee throughout the nationwide anthem on Saturday.
Louisville Courier Journal
You thought the most important controversy of the Kentucky males’s basketball group’s season was going to be that 1-6 begin? Think once more.
The Wildcats had been greater than 500 miles from the Bluegrass State after they knelt throughout the nationwide anthem Saturday at Florida, however followers and others again residence observed.
A sheriff and jailer burned their UK shirts in protest. One county’s leaders handed a decision calling for taxpayer cash to cease flowing to the college. And one of the highest-ranking Kentucky legislators cried on the Senate floor, saying that the gamers’ motion was a disrespectful gesture to navy members similar to his son.
“People have died for this country,” mentioned Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester. “They have died to allow young men to go out on the floor and have the opportunity to play sports and speak their mind.”
More: Opinion: Dos and don’ts of protesting for athletes. (Hint: It’s never acceptable for some)
More: NBA coaches: Wednesday’s riot at U.S. Capitol ‘disturbing’, ‘disgrace’
Kentucky gamers, who selected to kneel following final week’s riot on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump in addition to a summer time of protests for racial justice, mentioned they anticipated a backlash. But did they know the response could be so sturdy so rapidly?
“With the world we’re living in now, I think everybody knew,” ahead Isaiah Jackson mentioned at a press convention Monday. “At the end of the day, people are going to say what they’re going to say. People can do what they want. It’s a free country.”
It’s an argument that escalated rapidly,
