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Reflection: On My Knees

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by Dr. Mike Ghouse

Kaepernick is my hero, I pray for Trump and may God save the American Flag and for what it stands for; Freedom.

Every time I see the flag, I say a short prayer, “May justice, liberty, freedom and pursuit of happiness be the corner stones of our flag. One thing that distinguishes us from all other nations is our emphasis on those four values enshrined in our psyche. Justice is what keeps this society, the American society successful, we are safe and secure in our day to day lives, and our worries are removed knowing that there will be justice.

No one has a right to question your love for your mother, it is personal. Likewise no one has a right to question your belief or non-belief in God, it is personal. The Flag is no different.

Flag is not our God, but under that flag we can differ and disagree, but still it is our flag.

Flag is a symbol of our freedom, it can be burned, revered, messed up – that is between the individual and the Flag. If one does not stand up for the flag, that is his or her choice. That is his birth-right, we are born to be free, it is in our DNA.

Each one of has the responsibility to defend our liberty and we thank all the people who have defended that liberty from the inception of our nation and continue to do so.

I admire the football players, they have been galvanized by criticism from the president. They ‘Protest Trump And Racism In Games Across The Country. Samantha Tomaszewski, Daniel Marans write in Huffington post,

“NFL players throughout the country demonstrated before their games in defiance of President Trump’s harsh criticism of athletes who kneel during the national anthem. Former San Fransisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick spearheaded the movement last season as a way to call out racism. In a Friday speech in Alabama, Trump called such players “sons of bitches,” and then doubled down on his criticism in a series of follow-up posts on Twitter.

The first such protest occurred Sunday morning in London, and even included the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shahid Khan. He linked arms with his players — several of whom were kneeling during the anthem — despite having donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.

Trump’s comments sparked a large social media response from a variety of professional athletes and celebrities, including singer Stevie Wonder, who took a knee during a performance Saturday night. The vast majority of NFL team owners, as well as the league’s commissioner Roger Goodell, also spoke out.

“The callous and offensive comments made by the President are contradictory to what this great country stands for,” 49ers CEO Jed York said.

Bruce Maxwell, a catcher for the Oakland Athletics, became the first major league baseball player to take a knee during the national anthem Saturday night. “

Rick Ward at Facebook shares this information ( I have not verified this info), “We didn’t even have an official national anthem until 1931, so if everybody would stop treating it as if it was the song Mary sang while rocking baby Jesus to sleep, that would be great.

The founding fathers didn’t care, and we functioned for 155 years as a nation without an official ditty.

Veterans didn’t die for the song. Aside from the ridiculousness of that assertion, the vast majority of this countries war casualties were killed long before we had an official national anthem. “

Erica Altes Cole writes at facebook, “Governments should not mandate patriotism.”

Cindy Noble Cole also writes, “The flag is secondary, not the freedom. Without the freedom the flag does not matter.”

Trump called White Supremacists ‘Very Fine People’ but an Athlete who protests is a SOB.

Trump Ranted about kneeling NFL Players, on the other hand, Obama praised their right to protest.

MLK’s Daughter: People didn’t like how ‘My Father protested injustice either.’

Colin Kaepernick is my hero, he stood up against compulsion to obey, instead he chose to be free and paid a dear price for it, lost the great paying job of a quarter back for 49’ers. That is what freedom is all about. Personally, I have lost many opportunities in life for speaking out for freedom of speech. I would rather be free, there is freedom in it.

If you go back to the history of our nation, a lot of bad things could have happened to the country had the generations before us not protested, and a lot of bad traditions would have continued.

Had it not been for the protests the Republic women would have stayed home and cooked for their husbands and produced children, they would have been the property of their men. Thanks to the women who got beaten for protesting but they got the women the right to own property and right to vote and right to live their lives as they want. Now, the women are enjoying those freedoms because of the protests.

Same goes with the race, Rev. Martin Luther King was called names for protesting against injustice and slavery, had it not been for his protests, American would have continued to live in the guilty of treating a fellow being less than what he or she is.

Had it not been for the protests we would have killed many more Vietnamese and our own soldiers and would have destroyed their lives morally, socially and economically. Had we joined in Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan, our nation would not have killed a million Iraqis, 5000+ American soldiers, closure of businesses and budget deficit of $11 Billion that former President Bush piled up.

It was these protest that cleaned our cities from fog and other ailments that haunted us in late 70’s and early 80’s. Now, we need to take up on climate change to give a better life for the next generation. We may have to open biology and climate classes in every neighborhood and enroll all those who are blinded by their political brainwashing.

We have a good life because some one cared about the future and we have a responsibility to care for the next generation.

I pray for Mr. Trump. May God give him Sanity to work on creating a kingdom of heaven on the earth where people are not pitted against each other, nor they are afraid of each other. That is the America I have known and that is the America we all want. This is the America I love and defend.

A note about God: Even if you believe you have your own God which is better than others’ God. Let it be known that in the battle of Gods, the powerful one killed every one, and we ended up with the left over God. He is the only one now, unless you manufacture another to fight with him for supremacy. Guess what, the God that all subscribe to will win, and not your or my God.

Mike Ghouse is the executive of Washington based Center for Pluralism

DACA: Trump Pronounces the Death of Dreams

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by TMO Staff

About 800,000 young undocumented immigrants are at risk of deportation, if the president and members of the House and Senate can not make a deal in the next 6 months. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who not only supports increased deportations but has opposed the DACA  (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program since its inception under President Barack Obama in 2012, has called DACA unconstitutional adding ‘We are people of compassion and we are people of law.’

He has also helped block legislative efforts to help those called ‘Dreamers.’ ‘Dreamers’ refers to those who came to the U.S. as children.  

DACA protections last for two years and allow Dreamers to work legally. With the loss of DACA protections, Dreamers might be sent away from the country they’ve lived in since they were children. Initially, government officials had said their focus was on deporting criminals, however this seems to not be the case.

Currently, the U.S. has 43 million immigrants. About 11 million are undocumented- 22 percent of whom are under the age of 25. Dreamers are immigrants who came to the U.S. before turning 16-years-old and have been living in the U.S. since June 15, 2007. 72 percent of Dreamers are in higher education and 60 percent are known organ donors. They contribute $460 billion to the U.S. economy, if the Trump administration succeeds in eliminating DACA some 700,00 would lose jobs.   

The decision is likely to be challenged by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.). Even in Congress some Republicans are supportive of Dreamers, some had even introduced a bill- but the White House immediately shot it down in July.

About 1,800 governors, mayors, legislatures and public officials have opposed President Trump’s initiative.

Muslim organizations and interfaith groups have been supportive of Dreamers and most likely plan to join public officials to oppose Trump’s decision. Several churches have already declared their intentions to make houses of God sanctuaries for Dreamers, were they to be deported. Mosques and synagogues have also followed the lead in joining them.

The leading Muslim-American civil rights organization, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), has already condemned President Trump’s termination of  DACA as “pandering to the demands of anti-immigrant extremists.” In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:

“The American Muslim community and CAIR stand with the 800,000 undocumented young people who were brought to our nation as children, who call the United States home and whose only dream is to come out of the shadows and to stay where they belong.

By terminating DACA, even with a six-month delay or ‘wind down,’ President Trump is pandering to the demands of anti-immigrant extremists and harming our nation by targeting some of the most dynamic and success-oriented members of society. In practical terms, the ‘delay’ in implementing the termination is meaningless for the vast majority of Dreamers and will inevitably result in chaos in their lives.

These young Dreamers deserve the chance to work and study — and to be protected from deportation — while Congress debates broader legislation to fix our broken immigration system.

President Trump’s heartless action will only serve to create fear and anxiety for the Dreamers and their loved ones, and will force them back to living in the shadows, rendering them unable contribute to our nation’s economy.

CAIR encourages state and local officials across the nation to enact policies prohibiting discrimination based on citizenship status and to offer sanctuary and support for Dreamers.

American Muslims will continue to push for measures that protect undocumented youth and support comprehensive immigration reform – reform that includes a roadmap to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented residents.”

Recently, CAIR National Board Chair Roula Allouch joined more than 1,860 fellow leaders in signing a new “We are with Dreamers” statement calling on President Trump to preserve the DACA program and for Congress to pass a standalone version of the bipartisan Dream Act of 2017.

CAIR has asked community members to report any bias incidents to police and to CAIR’s Civil Rights Department at 202-742-6420 or by filing a report here.

Addition to the story since original publication:

The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a coalition of leading national and local Muslim-American organizations, has also joined the growing number of civic organizations against the Trump Administration’s decision to end DACA.

“Repealing DACA is not only detrimental to immigrants that have participated in this program, but harms us all by contradicting core American values. Our nation prides itself on the opportunities that we provide and the freedoms that we enjoy. To take these opportunities away from hard working, and contributing members of society is dehumanizing, discriminatory and un-American,” USCO said, in a letter addressed to the White House.