A Tale of Two Governors - Retain NMSU President Garrey Carruthers

Sometimes we change our minds about people; or the people change. Or both.

I knew Garrey Carruthers slightly in the 1970's. He was a business professor and chaired the State Republican Party. I was an antiwar rabble-rouser, then a reporter. We didn't particularly hit it off. 

I lived elsewhere when he was governor. After I returned to Las Cruces, and he sought the NMSU Presidency, I wrote against choosing him. Nothing personal. He'd apologized for Big Tobacco, and was sticking his head in the sand about global warming; and he'd likely stress corporate and military stuff rather than arts and sciences. 

Soon after he got the job he appeared on my radio show. We talked for an hour. Agreed about some things and disagreed about others; but collegially and somewhat candidly.

Later, someone at Corbett Center overreacted to students protesting the National Security Agency. Alan Dicker held a sign pointing at the NSA recruiting table reading, “If you want to work for Big Brother, apply here. The next day, another student dropped a copy of Orwell's 1984 on NSA's table outdoors. Both students were arrested. Which I thought violated their free speech rights.

Representing the students, Mike Lilley and I contacted Assistant General Counsel Lisa Warren. We said that we could and would sue, and spend a lot of everyone's time and NMSU's money litigating what seemed to us an obvious violation. Or University and students could collaborate on rewriting the campus free speech rules and educating staff on the law. 

NMSU (Carruthers) agreed. As I wrote then, the resulting Free Speech Task Force was a delightful, cooperative experience. If you'd walked in during a meeting, you would have had a hard time figuring out which half of the members the University had appointed and which the students had appointed. If NMSU Police Chief Stephen Lopez saw a way we should state a free-speech right more clearly, he said so. If I saw something that was good for free speech, but might have negative side-effects on NMSU, I pointed out the problem. 

Carruthers backed us wholeheartedly, helping shepherd the new policy through the administrative process, including Regents' approval. 

It's been a tough time to preside over a public university. Dwindling funds and a short-sighted governor have exacerbated problems most colleges and universities are facing. I lack sufficient knowledge to assess Dr. Carruthers's performance in detail; I've heard things anecdotally. I like his readiness to jump into a frank discussion with people, whether they agree with him or not. He has substantial relevant experience, as NMSU student, professor, dean, and now Prexy. He's likely a fine fund-raiser, with varied contacts; and his openness to discussion probably means he can not only raise funds from wealthy conservatives and corporations but from more progressive entities.

So, why didn't the Regents decide not to renew his contract? Ageism? Can't be poor performance. Sure ain't because they want someone more liberal-arts oriented. The Regents likely don't share my view that, except for the Ameresco energy services contract, NMSU has been lousy on environmental matters. 

Or did Susana Martinez get her appointed board to slap Carruthers down because he'd spoken up for NMSU when she was having a hissy fit and not funding universities? (Yo, that's his job!) Or has she whispered she'd like a highly-paid gig after 2018, increasing her state retirement benefits?

Hope not. Unlike Carruthers, she can't get along with people who aren't obedient; she holds petty grudges and acts on them; she has no experience teaching at or running a university; and she's screwed up her current job six ways from Sunday.

                                                    -30-

[The above column appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News this morning, Sunday, 27 August, 2017, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air several times this week on KRWG Radio, and on Thursday on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM.]

[I note the high praise for Carruthers expressed recently by Bill McCamley, Mary Kay Papen, and others who've had a better chance to observe Carruthers. I share their concern that even if there's no plot to put Susana in Garrey's seat, the Regents should not be turning a cold shoulder on Carruthers because he spoke up for the University against Martinez's blanket veto, and implicitly criticized her by noting he'd raised taxes as governor when it appeared necessary.

I'm not suggesting we canonize Carruthers; but I recognize that most of what I oppose in him is stuff these Regents probably like. I'm not happy about NMSU's development plans East of town; but that's me, and I recognize that his plans may be pragmatically in the best interest of the University's long-term finances.  If Carruthers still isn't sure about global warming or thinks it's fine to deal with Monsanto, we still disagree and I still think those are important issues; but it isn't as if the regents share my concerns.  Their secret reasons for sending him off into the sunset, IF they do so, are likely not that he's insufficiently concerned about the environment.]

[Meanwhile, between my writing of this column and its publication, the Sun-News has also editorialized on the subject and the Board of Regents plans to discuss the issue Wednesday morning and revisit Carruthers's future, (probably at about the time I'm discussing the issue with Bill McCamley and others on my weekly radio show).  Since donors reportedly have also expressed the kinds of concerns the legislators, the Sun-News, and I have expressed, I'm hopeful the Regents will rethink this one.]

Trump and Charlottesville

I think I understand why revulsion at Trump's comments on Charlottesville is so universal.

Trump's “both sides are wrong” response didn't shock or surprise me. Local Republican County Chair Roman Jimenez's vicious writing didn't surprise me. Why would they? 

But Trump is suddenly isolated, deserted by business, the military, and other Republicans. Jimenez has resigned under fire. Republican fire. 

A book review helped me see why this week's events elicited such a strong, universal reaction: what we saw dredged up distant images locked in all our hearts because they were so unthinkable.

The book review mentioned conductor Arturo Toscanini getting beaten up by Nazi thugs in Berlin in 1931. One of many harbingers of what was to come. 

We have a president who encourages violence. He plays to his audience by urging security to beat protesters at rallies and by urging police to bang black arrestees' heads against the hard steel roofs of police cars. When his supporters do violence, he can't criticize them unambiguously. Nazi wannabes shouted slogans against Jews. A nutcase from Ohio drove into a crowd of people. Trump doesn't see the problem.

He can't unambiguously criticize an insane and homicidal supporter. The victims were asking for it. Were both sides guilty in the Miami nightclub shooting, because gay people were dancing with each other in public? Democrats condemned the shooting of Republican Congressmen at a baseball practice. I loathe Steve Pearce's politics, but I'd sure stop someone from shooting bullets at him if I could! 

If a Muslim nutcase had driven that car, Trump would rail against Muslims. But the White Supremacists who egged this guy on? They were Trump's first supporters. 

Even Republicans are appalled. Even many conservatives are speaking out.

On the radio a black woman says she's surprised not by the racism but by the Quad Cities speaking out against that racism. She never saw that while she was growing up. She felt good seeing white faces at a protest. In Doña Ana County, Jimenez's extreme rhetoric is suddenly unpalatable to the people who had made him their leader. 

Why? Because a dangerous buffoon as Chancellor, with thugs who support him beating people, feels eerily familiar.

Whatever our political or social views, we do not want that Nazi world. Trump and his supporters have trod too close to indelible images from history carved somewhere deep inside us: photographs from the Holocaust, Nazis kicking a pregnant Jewish woman's belly. (I also recall TV footage of skinny little black girls being escorted to school by the national guard, on a sidewalk lined with jeering white adults.) Whatever our beliefs, we know we do not want a world like that. 

Trump is not Hitler. He's a narcissist who's lived a privileged life. He has no strong political views. He's greedy, shallow, and self-absorbed. He hasn't Hitler's sharp focus or deep hatred. Trump looks down on blacks, but has no desire to eradicate them. Particularly if they stay in their place.

 

And our middle class and lower-middle classes aren't (yet?) nearly as shell-shocked as Germany's were during the 1930's. Yeah, the last few decades have about made the middle-class an endangered species, widening the vast inequality between rich and poor and pushing more of us toward that latter.

But things aren't as bad as they were in Germany.

We have a long democratic tradition. Germany didn't.

But historical repetitions need not be precisely identical. 

The young woman murdered in Charlottesville posted online that we must speak up against hatred, that failing to speak was to support it. 

It's heartening that so many are speaking out. This time.

                                     -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 20 August 2017, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week on KRWG and on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM.]

[If it isn't clear what I'm saying and what I'm not: it feels dangerous to have a fellow in the White House spewing violent thoughts and encouraging the more vicious among us; when thugs do pro-fascist violence, he basically smiles upon them; and that can't help remind anyone who's old or has read any history of Germany in the 1930's.  Not an appetizing prospect.
I'm not saying Trump is Hitler; but if a man drives a car into a crowd because he's too busy looking at himself in the mirror to concentrate on driving, the people he kills are just as dead as if he'd planned it all out carefully.  Same with our democracy, already under threat by Citizens United, Koch Brothers, ALEC, and the rest.
That is, there are dangers here.  Bad things are happening and more could be in store.
There are a lot of reasons -- the responses of our business and military leaders, our democratic history and traditions, Trump's basic incompetence, and above all the fact that such a vast majority of people loathe Trump -- to hope nothing so vile as happened in Germany will happen here; so I don't believe anything similar will happen here.  But most Germans couldn't  have imagined what occurred there.
I don't think we'll descend to that level; but I do think every thinking person of good will needs to pay attention and speak up.  Hitler was even more marginal than Donald Trump when he started.  Folks didn't suppose either would become their nation's leader.  These are troublesome times, which I believe we'll survive -- but not if we sleep.]


[Saturday, as I was copying this column into my blog, I ran across these statements by U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb).  And although he and a couple of other prominent Republicans may be angling for visibility in a possible post-Trump Presidential race in 2020, similar sentiments seem widespread right now.]

[And this just in: Evangelical students at Liberty University are returning their diplomas to protest Jerry Falwell's continued support of Trump.   Liberty University? These are not leftwingers.

September 12, 2011

Kaepernick Redux

My Sunday column a few weeks ago discussed Colin Kaepernick, and the NFL's informal blacklist of him for kneeling during the national anthem and making comments critical of our government and police -- and the history of both.

19August update:

This new story shows NY City cops showing support for Kaepernick, and a second white football player participating  in  an anthem kneeling -- by keeping his right hand on the shoulder of a kneeling black teammate.

Meanwhile, Mike Florio reports the NAACP in Atlanta will boycott the NFL:

“There will be no football in the state of Georgia if Colin Kaepernick is not on a training camp roster and given an opportunity to pursue his career,” said Gerald Griggs of the Atlanta NAACP at a Friday press conference, via fox5atlanta.com. “This is not a simple request. This is a statement. This is a demand.”

“Kaepernick engaged in a silent, non-violent protest,” says Senior Pastor Deblaire Snell of the First SDA Church in Huntsville, Alabama. “He did this to raise awareness to the number of brown and black individuals that have been beaten and killed at the hands of law enforcement across this country. Since the end of last season, as a result of this protest, Colin Kaepernick has been unable to find employment in the NFL. I find that strange, seeing that the NFL has employed individuals that have been convicted of sexual assault, domestic violence, cruelty to animals, along with driving while under the influence. A number of NFL owners have come out and stated the reason they cannot employ him is because of a fear of a backlash from sponsors or a certain segment of their fan base. And it’s interesting that they’ve capitulated thus far to a certain segment of the fan base while fearing no backlash from the African-American community. . . .

“My belief is simply this. If Colin Kaepernick was willing to take a stand for those of us who are non-celebrities that would have to interact with law enforcement on a day-to-day basis, if he’s willing to take a knee for us, certainly we ought to take a stand, and stand with him.”

Over the balance of the video, various others explain that there will be a refusal to watch the NFL, a refusal to purchase NFL merchandise, and a refusal to participate in fantasy football.

“We want you to know this protest is not anti-flag, because people of color love the Stars and Stripes,” says Dr. Leslie N. Pollard, president of Oakwood University. “This protest is not anti-American, because people of color have loved this country, even when this country has not loved us back. And this protest is not anti-veteran, because we support those who have made sacrifices so that our liberties have been secured. This protest is to ensure the rights of all Americans regardless of color and creed to be heard.”

previous update:
I felt, as others do, that Kaepernick was a sufficiently good quarterback that he should have been hired this offseason well before quite a few QB's that teams hired or retained.  Without rearguing that, this post will note additional developments and contain links to some stories on those.  This week, those include a couple of other prominent players who failed to stand for the national anthem before preseason games recently.  Saturday, star running-back Marshawn Lynch sat before his first game as a Raider.  Sunday, Seattle Seahawks' defensive end Michael Bennett, some of whose comments appear below, did the same.  

Seahawks' head coach Pete Carrol didn't even realize until after the game that Bennett had sat during the anthem.  A Seahawks' official said he was fine with Bennett's action "as long as Michael is preaching love and not hate."  On Saturday, Lynch, Bennett’s former Seahawks teammate, sat on Oakland’s bench eating a banana during the anthem.

Bennett chose not to stand during the national anthem prior to the Seattle Seahawks preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers. He explained why to Yahoo Sports’ Jordan Schultz, and this is a condensed version of his words:

I’ve been thinking about sitting during the national anthem, especially after everything that’s been happening the last couple weeks. It’s just been so crazy right now, and I felt like the conversation wasn’t over.  I know it offends a lot of people, that’s why I kept it straightforward. I love America, I love hot dogs, I love everything about it.

I thought about it right up to the beginning of the game, and finally decided not to stand because it just felt right.

Everybody’s supportive as usual, because people know I genuinely care about people and care about the way that the world is.

Not a lot of people are willing to stand up and say what they believe in. [N]ot everybody is willing to say that they hate injustice. It’s kind of one of those things where you’ll be ridiculed if you bring something like that up in any place, so it’s hard to do.  I think I’m just a regular human being that’s wiling to be vulnerable in that way.

I really had to think about what I was doing. It was one of those things like, ‘Yeah, you’re really doing it. You’re really putting yourself out there to be attacked. You’re really stepping out. Are you ready for what’s going to happen? Are you ready for what people are going to say?’

So far, everything’s been positive.

Going forward, I want to continuously just push the message of equality.

My goal, my hope, is more action. Say less, do more.

(Twitter/@DennisTFP)

I think I’m at the point where spiritually, this is what you do. You dedicate your life to helping make change and using your platform to do it. You continuously have to be on that path to keep going, challenging yourself to do it. I think I’m inspired to keep doing more, even with all the hate going on. I’m inspired to keep trying to make a change.

I know some people won’t like it, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s a part of life, I think. Everybody’s going to attack you. If you’re in the game, you’re being attacked. I think being a sports star, you need to learn about fans, learn about people. The ups and downs of people, their beliefs – people feel one way one day and then change the next day. Sticking to who you are is, I think, the most important thing.

For me, I think wanting to make a difference started as a kid. I was always helping around, help doing things. I was on my grandpa’s farm, just doing stuff for the community. I got it from my parents. I think growing up reading about Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi and all these people, it really helped me cultivate what to do with my platform.

I always looked up to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, John Carlos. All these guys do so much.

Now I look at Colin Kaepernick and all these people who do so much in the community and raising the bar of what we can do as athletes and what we can do as people. Do we forget our story and our journey and recreate who we are? Or do we connect our story to where we are now to be able to give other kids opportunities?

People want to keep you on the field. Everyone cares about what you do on the field and not what you’re doing as a man or a father or a person. Every question is about sports and sometimes it can get annoying because you can kind of lose your identity within sports.

When you get in the position on a platform where you get a chance to give back and create opportunities for others, that’s where I want my legacy to be. Over the last four or five years, my story has been shared more than in the past. I want to create opportunities for others. I want to raise the bar about what we can do as athletes and people. I think that’s where I want my legacy to be.

People are inspired by each other and want to help each other, and I think that’s the message that I really want to speak to clearly. It’s about how do we connect with each other and remember that we’re all people, and we all want to be a part of this great thing we call life, and this great thing we call love.

Texas Becomes Mecca for Rapists and Thieves

Texas limits deer-hunting to certain seasons, but is making it open season all year long on Latinas without papers. 

SB4 makes it criminal for a police chief or sheriff to direct officers not to ask for people's papers.

Latinos and law-enforcement are united in opposing this bill.

The Legislature ignored State Rep. Mary Gonzalez's moving plea not to pass this vicious and misguided bill. She too had been raped. A painful public admission. She made the obvious point that discouraging victims from reporting rapes and other crimes tells anyone contemplating such conduct that he probably can get away with it.

Already, reports of rapes have declined significantly among Latinas, while reports from others are increasing. And it's not just rapes. A group of teenagers confessed (or bragged?) that they targeted Latinos because “they don't call the police.”

Since potential criminals don't necessarily know who has papers, crimes against Hispanic citizens, legal residents, and illegal residents will all increase. But so what? They're brown, and they're in Texas. 

As the Texas Major Cities Association (TMCA) argues, cops “work extremely hard to build and maintain trust, communication, and stronger relationships with minority communities through community based policing and outreach programs. [Laws like SB4] that push local law enforcement to take a more active role in immigration enforcement will further strain the relationship between local law enforcement and these diverse communities.” 

This at a time when distrust and poor communication between cops and minorities is literally killing members of both groups. Why would a witness without papers answer questions about a cop-killing in Dallas? They know the cops aren't protecting them. Cooperating could not only spark retaliation by the killers but get them deported. (Would the cops actually deport such a person? They 'd not want to; but would a witness take the chance?)

SB4 exposes Republican “law-and-order” talk as empty rhetoric. The TMCA op-ed added, “if we don't arrest criminals who victimize our immigrant communities, we allow them to remain free to victimize every one of us.” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted, “Violent crime is on rise across our Nation & some would rather men & women in blue go after cooks & nannies, instead of hardened criminals.” TMCA suggested that a real effort at decreasing immigration would go after businesses that hire immigrants. 

Although Governor Abbott says it's about public safety, law-enforcement officials are nearly unanimous in strongly opposing this bill. Cops know how things work on the street. SB4 adds to their problems and dangers. But it fits the anti-immigrant hysteria, and the Republican ideology. Who cares about the people it hurts? 

Who cares about anything sensible when hysteria takes over? 

The famous wall, if ever built, would accomplish little, but would hurt the economy and ecology along the border, divide communities, and cost a fortune. Just the threat of it may be dampening cross-border trade.

Smart folks outside the U.S. are already trying to replicate Silicon Valley, hoping that tech-savvy folks from other countries will feel more comfortable bringing their talents to somewhere that isn't in a panic against “furriners.” 

I understand Trump's position. He was never as popular as he wished, and now he's screwing up all over the place. In traditional fashion, he's distracting us with convenient scapegoats. The same tactics work well in Texas. 

Studying facts and making reasoned decisions was never as popular in government as it should have been; but Trump's legendary disdain for truth and facts seems to work, so why wouldn't small-minded Texas legislators emulate him. I hope New Mexicans won't.

                                                        -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 13 August 2017, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air several times on KRWG Radio, and possibly on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM.]

[Here's part of what State Rep. Mary Gonzalez said:  "To my friends on this floor, if you ever had any friendship with me, then this is the vote that measures that friendship. That you can vote for this amendment, then you think it’s OK for women, for children not to be able to go to law enforcement and be protected in their most vulnerable time in their lives. That you’re willing to take that risk, then I hope you never talk to me again, because this is people’s lives."There’s been a sharp drop. In rapes and sexual assaults alone, the reduction has been 42.8 percent, while the rest of the community, the numbers have gone up. The same holds true, to a lesser extent, I think about 13 percent increase, with a decrease for all violent crime.
"And, you know, that’s the unintended consequence. When you start trying to create the perception that front-line law enforcement officers, who should be focused on public safety, are now going to become ICE agents, you cannot argue with the fact that it’s going to have an impact. Perception matters. And the perception that SB 4, and the debate leading up to this law, has created is that we are going to be required to be immigration agents, which that’s not the truth. I mean, that’s not a fact, but it doesn’t matter. You cannot—we just can’t seem to convince the immigrant community that they need not to fear us."]

[Here's a link to Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo's press conference.  (I'm proud of my former law school classmate, Houston Mayor Silvester Turner, for whatever part he played in making this guy chief.)

The New Yorker quotes El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles as saying, “It’s kind of amazing that, during the initial hearing, the senators had all these chiefs and sheriffs from across Texas speaking against the bill—and they totally ignored the people in law enforcement,” adding that his alread overworked officers are  “too busy to waste their time doing another agency’s work.”  He also noted that the new law made this "[T]he only area where one of my officers could now be allowed to go out there and ignore his own bosses is on immigration. It’s crazy.”

Republican supporters of SB 4 are doubly hypocritical: they're not only interfering with police when they're the loudest at screaming "Support your Local Police," they always preach "decentralization," but only practice it when they feel like it.  As Acevedo told The New Yorker, “Texas politicians always complain that Washington is trying to dictate to them how to do things.  Now they’re turning around and doing the same thing to the cities in their own state.”  Further, since police in most of these cities already asked about immigration status if it was material to an investigation or with regard to someone arrested, the effect of the change is to specifically targets witnesses and people reporting crimes.  Victims.  I'd sure appreciate that if I were a criminal in Texas!]

Adios, Football

If no one hires Colin Kaepernick, I won't watch professional football this year.

Some readers are now angry at me. Many others may wonder what a Kaepernick is.

Colin Kaepernick is a quarterback. He did some marvelous things as a San Francisco 49er. Then the team committed suicide by getting rid of a great coach, Jim Harbaugh. Kaepernick got injured. He recovered and played fairly well on a terrible team. No one knows whether, on a decent team, he could now revive the greatness he showed during the 'Niners' Super Bowl season.

Last year, Kaepernick (who looks to be of mixed race, and was adopted and raised by a white couple) took a knee during the pre-game national anthem. 

He did so to affirm, “Black Lives Matter.” They do. All lives matter, and we shouldn't need to be reminded of that; but saying it, specifically about black lives, also matters, because our society hasn't always thought so -- and still sometimes seems to find them less significant than white lives. 

No one needs to say “White Lives Matter.” “Blue lives matter” too. Black lifes have often seemed to matter least. Blue lives have always gotten plenty of lip service from politicians but are too easily dismissed; and if you say black lives matter, you should also note that blue lives do. 

Many have said that Kaepernick, making a professional football player's salary, should donate money to nonprofits working to improve things. He does.

After last season, San Francisco parted ways with Kaepernick. Teams with excellent, proven quarterbacks have a good football reason to ignore him. 

But given his skills as a quarterback, the game's key position, at least half the teams in the NFL should be quite interested in hiring him, as starter or backup. This summer teams have hired or retained many QB's far below Kaepernick in ability, accomplishments, and winning probability. 

The reason he's still available is painfully obvious. Even Donald Trump has told the NFL not to hire Kaepernick. One owner admitted that Kaepernick's politics were the problem, while another owner (whose coach, Jim Harbaugh's brother, John, wanted to hire Kaepernick), asked the public to “pray for us” then vetoed the hiring.

Teams say the kneeling “is a distraction.” But coaches from San Francisco say it wasn't a distraction there. A couple of players kneeled with Kaepernick instead of standing for the national anthem. Most players didn't. Coaches confirm that there was no locker room distraction. And Kap has said that if he gets a job this fall he won't be kneeling during the anthem.

I enjoy watching pro football, though less than when I was younger. But it is sort of militaristic, and has been somewhat racist. All teams other than Green Bay are owned by obscenely wealthy individuals or by corporations. I don't agree with all the league's policies. Yet I've kept watching.

In sports, athletes' skills and competitive drive should matter most. Unless a player's laziness, undependability, or selfishness impacts the team's spirit and cohesion, put the best on the field. Whatever color or religion or nationiality they are. Whatever their beliefs. Particularly when the NFL has a history of ignoring wife-beating and drunken driving and battery offenses when committed by successful or promising players. If punishing a freethinker or thoughtful dissenter is more important than playing the best football you can, count me out. 

I know I'm pretty insignificant. I know the NFL ain't gonna miss one old guy in southern New Mexico with his back steadfastly turned to the TV Sunday mornings. But it's my turn to take a knee.

                                               -30-

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 6 August 2017, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air periodically during the week on KRWG Radio (and on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM.]

[The last few days have brought additional copy on Kaepernick, including a piece on the Baltimore debacle and a job opportunity Kap still might get.

After I wrote the column, NBCA Bay Area publichsed Report: Multiple NFL Owners Have Blocked Their Team Signing Kap  From that article:

"Colin Kaepernick is widely considered to be worthy of an NFL contract, but the former 49ers quarterback and social activist is still unemployed.

"With Joe Flacco injured, the Baltimore Ravens are in need of a quarterback. But they won't sign Kaepernick, and it's not a football decision.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Ozzie Newsome would like to sign Kaepernick, "but have met resistance from owner Steve Bisciotti," according to Dianna Russini, who also reports that this is not the first time that an NFL team has wanted to add Kaepernick only to be blocked by the owner.

"It's the first official report of the league black-balling Kapernick after he protested the National Anthem last year in San Francisco.

"Instead of following the wishes of the team's head coach and GM, the Ravens opted instead for former arena quarterback David Olson, whom they released after just three days. The Ravens then signed Josh Woodrum, who went undrafted out of Liberty in 2016.

"Behind Flacco, Baltimore has quarterback Ryan Mallet -- who has struggled early in training camp -- Woodrum and Dustin Vaughan on their roster."

Richard Sherman

Seattle Seahawks' wide-receiver Malcolm Baldwin:

"My original position was I thought that the situation last year with him taking a knee didn't have anything to do with it," Baldwin said. "After viewing what's going on, I've got to take that back. I definitely think that the league, the owners are trying to send a message of, 'Stay in between the lines.' It's frustrating because you want to have guys who are willing to speak out about things that they believe in, whether you agree with it or not. But I think that's definitely playing a role now moreso than I thought it was going to."

The Seahawks remain the only team that even brought Kaepernick in for a free-agent visit, but the team elected not to sign him.

Baldwin said Kaepernick's play is worthy of a job in the NFL.

"If you take a step back and you look at the overall picture, there's a lot of teams in this league that could use a quarterback of Colin Kaepernick's ability," Baldwin said. "And why he doesn't have a job, it's very telling to me. He's a very capable player. There's a lot of teams out there that need quarterbacks -- whether they're a starting quarterback or a backup-caliber quarterback. The fact that he hasn't been brought into camp yet is questionable."

That sure didn't sit well with some law-enforcement officers I know; and while there's more than a grain of historical truth to the spirit of that tweet, it's probably not helpful in trying to solve the problem.  It could help inflame some dangerous minds; but then again it could help someone think about how things look from the perspective of some black folks.   Whether you agree or disagree with Kaepernick, though, in my mind ill-judged tweets shouldn't make him unemployable.  After all, it's not as if he were looking for a job as U.S. President!

You can read Whitlock on Kaepernick at any of the Internet sites for which links are listed here. ]

[note added 10August:]  My wife says NPR's football commentator said much the same as I've said here; and a late-July pice by Jarrett Bell of USA Today notes that Dan Orlovsky had become the 24th QB, mostly backups, signed by an NFL team this offseason.   As he notes, Kaepernick quarterbacked a team to a Super Bowl, while Orlovsky was a QB on the Detroit Lions the year they went 0-16.  He notes too that last year, on that lousy San Francisco team, Kaepernick had 90.7 rating as a passer and a 16 to 4 TD to touchdown to interception ratio.  The 90.7 is nothing stellar; but on a poor team, which means he's not getting the best pass protection or receivers with the surest hands, it's not bad, not is the touchdown to interception ratio.  Other mediocre QB's signed this offseason include Ryan Fitzpatrick (69.6 rating, lowest in the league, on the Jest last year), Blaine Gabbert (whom the 49ers benched last season to play Kaepernick), and Austin Davis, whose such a nonentity as QB that I don't even remember who the hell he is!]