It’s time to refocus our priorities

Now this is just getting silly.

Don’t we have better things to worry about as a nation?

Vast parts of Puerto Rico are still without power in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and some estimates are that they won’t have electrical service for several months. Let that sink in: Several months.

Meanwhile the exchange of sabre-rattling between North Korea and the Trump administration continues. And the consequences could put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. Let that sink in: Hundreds of thousands of lives.

On top of that, Congress is ready to begin squabbling about the federal tax code, having squabbled themselves into a stalemate over healthcare.

So what are our political leaders wound up about? The National Football League.

Sunday’s publicity stunt by Vice President Mike Pence was just the latest bit of nonsense.

The Veep, in case you missed it, walked out of Sunday’s Indianapolis Colts game because some of the players on the field took a knee during the National Anthem as part of a protest over racism and social justice. In other words, he exercised his First Amendment rights because he didn’t like the fact that others were exercising their First Amendment rights.

Dueling protests are fine as far as they go, but they don’t really advance the discussion very much. 

NFL players taking a knee wanted to call attention to an issue — an imperfection in the American ideal — that they hoped people would think about.

Instead, their message got lost in a backlash of flag-waving.

The vice president and his boss wanted to scold or spank the NFL players who were protesting. Instead, that message came across as canned and cynical.

What’s ridiculous is that this has become a huge distraction when there are genuine crises facing us as a nation. If you doubt that, go back and re-read the third and fourth paragraphs of this editorial.

How about this? 

How about we agree to keep issues of racism and social justice permanently on the national agenda and also try to have a civilized discussion about how free speech and dialogue can be most meaningful?

And how about, in the meantime, we treat the restoration and rescue of Puerto Rico as if we were at war and focus on maneuvering through the avenues of diplomacy to avoid war with North Korea? — J.R.