Colin Kaepernick Has Filed a Grievance Against NFL for Collusion

There's not much to be said about this one except, do you think he's right? Post a comment below.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has filed a grievance against the NFL, alleging the owners colluded to keep him out of the league because of his protests during the playing of the national anthem before games.

The grievance alleges the league's owners "colluded to deprive Mr. Kaepernick of employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick's leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice."

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Instead of filing the grievance through the NFL Players Association, Kaepernick has hired attorney Mark Geragos, who has represented several high-profile clients, including Michael Jackson, former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield and musician Chris Brown.

Geragos said in a statement given first to ABC News Sunday night that the grievance was filed "only after pursuing every possible avenue with all NFL teams and their executives."

Kaepernick's goal, he said, was just to be treated fairly and to return to playing football in the NFL, "the league he performed at the highest level for."


The NFL Players Association said in a statement that it had been in contact with Kaepernick for the past year about his options, but only today learned he had decided to file the grievance, through media reports.

"Our union has a duty to assist Mr. Kaepernick as we do all players and we will support him," the statement said, adding that the union is scheduling a call with his advisers for early this week.

Kaepernick, who has not been with an NFL team since he severed his contract with the 49ers in March, began his silent protest of kneeling during the anthem in the 2016 preseason. He told the media he was protesting against the treatment of blacks in the United States.

Some other NFL players followed his lead during the 2016 season, drawing a mixed response from football fans and the general public, with some supporting the protest and others not.

But Kaepernick's most visible impact seemed to come at the start of this season, even though he himself had not been signed to a team, after President Trump at a campaign-style rally in Alabama slammed NFL players who participate in the protest.

from Business Insider

The president told the crowd at the rally on Sept. 22 that teams should fire players who kneel during the anthem.

from USA  Today

In response at NFL games over the next few days, many more players kneeled during the anthem or locked arms with teammates and in some cases also with their team's owners.

In his statement, Geragos did not name the president, but referred to Trump's call for protesting players to be fired, saying: "Athletes should not be denied employment based on partisan political provocation by the executive branch of our government. Such a precedent threatens all patriotic Americans and harkens back to our darkest days as a nation."


ABC News' Sunny Hostin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the blog author, and in no way express the views of ABC, USA Today, Business Insider, Blogger, Google or any other entity (i.e. news services) whose content and/or services may have been accessed for use in this blog. 

Black Lives Matter, and the Black Policeman Who Filed A Lawsuit Against Obama and Clinton

    Since the last post I've been thinking about what to post next. Sorry I haven't been updating like I should, it's just that it's become so hard to hear/read about the latest killings, and not run out and join the nearest Black Lives Matter chapter.  I usually describe myself as an activist... some family members consider me 'revolutionary' and 'rebellious'. (I'm sure if I told them that I'd ever considered joining BLM that would cement their belief about me.) If being sick and tired, not only of black men and women being killed like it's a game, but of the feelings of  helplessness  and despair; if wanting to do something to stop it makes me 'rebellious', then  I'm just going to have to accept that title and wear it with PRIDE!  I don't want to just sit around and commiserate with others about how sad it all is, and then go back to life as usual as if nothing's happened!! It really makes me sick to my stomach to see so many brothers and sisters  just brush it off as if it has nothing to do with them!  No one is going to come along and fight this battle for you ladies and gentlemen, if we don't fight for ourselves and each other, like our ancestors did during the slavery era,  and during the Civil Rights era, then our race is going to be wiped out, either by assimilation or assassination!! It's great to see whites being a part of BLM protests, as they have been over recent shootings, but they're not the ones that NEED to be doing the fighting! At the end of the day, they're going back to suburbia with their big homes  and fancy cars, while we catch the Metro home to our row-houses and apartments. We're the ones who will be left when the police start knocking on the doors in the wee hours of the morning talking about "We have a description of someone...", or "We got an anonymous tip...".  The white folks (and not by their own doing) will all be home chillin'...

white BLM UK protesters

     Read the full story here  about the BLM-UK protesters in London.  It's not the protesters' fault that they were allowed to go free with only what would be, in our country, suspended sentences. It just shows that the attitudes there are very similar to the ones here. What would have happened to nine black people who shut down the airport and made them cancel 160 flights??

     It can be really difficult to want to keep fighting when there are so many people of color who are either apathetic about the situation (since it doesn't affect them) or who completely disagree with BLM and insist that the charge of racism is false, and that the police are only 'doing their jobs' when they shoot unarmed black men  whose vehicle has broken down in the street.   (Read the story of Terence Crutcher here. WARNING: The videos are graphic and disturbing.)

     The absolute worst of these black people (IMO) are the ones who are cops themselves. How do they deal  with having other black people die all around them, knowing that a lot of them are not  justified shootings, and then having to watch the shooter just walk away? I'll show you how one deals with it...

Dallas Police Sgt. Demetrick Pennie Accuses Black Lives Matter and President Barack Obama

               of Inciting Race War and Files Lawsuit!!!

Yes folks, you read it here. A black police sergeant in Dallas has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against BLM and against the President of the United States. What do you want to bet he's a Republican? I mean hey, it was Fox News that reported this!

 Here's a little blurb from the story(You can read  it all here.):  

     Demetrick Pennie, a 17-year veteran and the president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation, filed the complaint in federal court Friday, naming Black Lives Matter and public figures such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, the New Black Panther Party, and even President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as defendants.

     Yes, President Obama, the first black president, and Hilary Clinton, wife of the white president who was considered an 'honorary black man'(Read Toni Morrison's description in The New Yorker magazine of 1998;  it's the 9th paragraph at this link.) are in cahoots to incite their supporters to violence against the police.  Any violence perpetuated against the police of course has nothing to do with the blacks being killed by them, it's all Obama and Clinton's fault.

     I've seen a lot of trivial lawsuits in my time, but to ask for $500 million to $1.5 billion  because the president and the presidential nominee have incited the public to violence? I'm not only smh"ing, I'm lol'ing as well!! If a black man ever wanted to make himself  look ridiculous and like a pawn of the white man, this guy has done it (excuse the pun, it wasn't intended) IN SPADES! 

     I wish I could go to sleep, and wake up in the morning only to find that all of this has been a bad dream; the deaths of all those people in suspicious circumstances at the hands of the police, as well as the shooting deaths of the police in Dallas; all the protests and the marches, even the campaign of Donald Trump for president (now that is someone who has incited some violence!), I just wish it would all go away.  One thing at least that we can do, is keep this country from getting any worse; don't let Donald Trump in the White House. Make sure you get out and vote! Personally, I don't care if you write in Mickey Mouse when you go to the polls, just VOTE. Can you imagine what the police departments will be like under a Trump/Republican regime???

DISCLAIMER: All views expressed in this post are those of the author, unless directly attributed to someone else. They do not represent the views of Google or Blogger. 

Family Sues Philly School District Over Asthma Death

In my opinion, this is just another example of how the educational systems in this country have suffered when it comes to deciding where funds should be spent... If there were more money in the Philadelphia School District, there would probably have been a full-time nurse, or at least one there more than two days a week!  Laporshia Massey would have been able to use her inhaler as necessary, and would not have felt that she couldn't go to the administration and tell them how she was feeling. This child's death could have been avoided; perhaps if the school staff had been trained about asthma (and other illnesses that children suffer) and given options on what to do in those cases. One of the staff could have contacted the parents and demanded that the child be removed from school if they had training and could recognize the distress she was in. It's just sad that budgets have been cut to this point, to the point where children are dying because they are not allowed to use the medication that has been prescribed for them.

Wednesday, Sept 3, 2014 • Updated at 10:59 PM EDT

The family of a girl who died of an asthma attack after attending a public school without a nurse has sued the Philadelphia School District.

The wrongful-death lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, said that 12-year-old Laporshia Massey remained at school despite complaining late in the day about breathing problems. She was driven home after school by a staff member Sept. 25, 2013, and died later that day, the lawsuit said.

Bryant Elementary School officials should have called 911, especially with no nurse on duty, lawyer Michael Pomerantz said. The West Philadelphia school had a nurse just two days a week.

"They have a phone there. ... Call 911. Play it safe, especially when you know there's no one else on the school grounds who was able to assess the situation," said Pomerantz, who filed the suit on behalf of the girl's estate.

Students were not allowed to use inhalers or take medicine without a nurse present at Bryant, so Laporshia apparently did not try to use her inhaler at school, the lawsuit said.

A school district spokesman did not immediately return a message Wednesday. The district, which reopens for students on Monday, does not typically comment on pending litigation.

Laporshia's father, Daniel Burch, has said the family got two calls about their daughter, but neither sounded urgent. In an interview last year, he said she was the big sister to his two sons, who also have asthma.

Burch described her interests as typical for a sixth-grade girl: "Fashion, clothes, nails, drawing, writing."

Laporshia was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia just after 6 p.m., and died within the hour, Pomerantz said.

The civil rights lawsuit seeks more than $150,000 in damages.

Is the GLBT Community Splitting up over the Marriage issue?

Lately I've been meeting a lot of folks on Twitter, some of whom (a lot of whom!! LOL) are really good bloggers/writers. One of them is a lesbian duo called Hersband and Wife. (Yes, I said HERSBAND)They are really awesome; activists in the LGBT community and the fight for equal rights, while also being advice columnists, which is an arena where we are sadly trailing the hetero world in representation. This article is from their blog at www.hersbandandwife.com


Is the GLBT Community Splitting up over the Marriage issue?
May 28th, 2009 by hersbandandwife

DON’T DIVIDE UNIFY!

In case you missed all the discussions last night about the push to take the prop 8 fight to the national stage we decided to re-post them today for all to see.

The statements by the attorneys that are taking this to the supreme court are great and will help you understand their arguments.

Larry King hosts Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, George Takei and Husband Brad Altman to discuss the ramifications and legalities of the recent decision by the California’s Supreme court on Prop 8 as well as the push to take the fight to the United States Supreme Court.

We are very encouraged after listening to their arguments. We are only hopeful that the GLBT groups that have spoken against them will decide to work with them on a unified front.

A statement released by the group Freedom to Marry states the following ;

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 27, 2009, New York, NY

PRESS CONTACT:
Evan Wolfson
Executive Director, Freedom to Marry
Tel: 212-851-8418; Mobile: 646-263-5552
Email: evan@freedomtomarry.org

New York, May 27, 2009 — In response to the California Supreme Court decision allowing Prop 8 to stand, four LGBT legal organizations and five other leading national LGBT groups are reminding the LGBT community that ill-timed lawsuits could set the fight for marriage back. The groups released a new publication, “Why the ballot box and not the courts should be the next step on marriage in California.” This publication discourages people from bringing premature lawsuits based on the federal Constitution because, without more groundwork, the U.S. Supreme Court likely is not yet ready to rule that same-sex couples cannot be barred from marriage. The groups also revised “Make Change, Not Lawsuits,” which was released after the California Supreme Court decision ending the ban on marriage for same-sex couples in California. This publication encourages couples who have legally married to ask friends, neighbors and institutions to honor their marriages, but discourages people from bringing lawsuits.

The groups working together with this statement are:

ACLU
GLAD
LAMBDA LEGAL
NCLR
Equality Federation
Freedom to Marry
GLAAD
Human Rights Campaign
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force

These are the groups against the federal lawsuit for marriage equality.

Our question to these groups is what if these two lawyers win?

Do you all think you will loose your GLBT community support because you all came out against what apears to many of us as progress? Wouldn’t it be easier to work with the lawyers to help them in their fight rather than against them?

Sometimes the perfect case never comes and you have to just step out on a limb and try to go “all in” and pray that the legal argument is sound and will stand.

With what is being said and done with these groups right now is making it apear that exactly what the prop 8 supporters wanted has happened. We have gone in one 24 hour period from being compleetly unified on this issue to a smattering of different opinions. These groups were all formed to unify our community but in fact what they are doing now is dividing us.

Yes on this issue we are standing on the opposite side of these groups, We have always stood with them on issues but in true H&W style we are not followers but we are learned writers who delve deep into an issue and form our own opinion. We may anger some by coming out against such high regarded GLBT rights organizations but we believe that they are playing it safe and the die has already been cast with the fileing of this lawsuit so why come out against something that was filed on May 22, 2009 prior to that of the prop 8 decision being made public? Why not unify with the lawyers and help them get this issue not only heard but a favorable decision.

This is too importand an issue to be devided on!

Our community has waited too long (since 1974) to be heard on this issue on the federal level, so we say You Go Boys and take it to the feds. The justices may not be ready but our President, Congress and House are. So we may just have enough pressure on the justices on this issue for them to not only hear this case but rule in true rainbow favorability.

It is about time someone had the guts and the knowledge to be able to push this issue.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (all you groups against them) UNIFY WITH THESE LAWYERS!!

*This may be political suiside for us but this is what everyone loves about us we dont follow we lead, and we are real not a watered down version of something else. So no appologies, only real opinion’s from a couple with a civil union who are tired of being treated like seccond class citizens.