Saturday, October 19, 2019

Jason Smith: LeBron James not following the teachings of Martin Luther King with failure to criticize China

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Letter from Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963

“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice.” – Sermon in Selma, Alabama on March 8, 1965

These are the words of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and these two quotes were also shared by LeBron James on Twitter to celebrate MLK Day in January of last year.

While these words appear crystal clear in their meaning, earlier this week LeBron made an exception to the late Dr. King’s advice.








For months on the streets of Hong Kong people have been beaten within inches of their lives, arrested and thrown into jail cells, and some have even been shot, all for just simply speaking their minds.

China, who hates any free expression that contradicts their communist control of society, has also positioned over 12,000 soldiers inside the city limits to scare the people of Hong Kong into ending their protests.

Still, the citizens of Hong Kong remain committed to fighting for their fundamental rights and freedoms. They look to the United States as the beacon of liberty; they run in the streets singing our national anthem and waving the American flag to keep their hopes alive.

In the United States of America, we defend the freedom of speech. That is why people like LeBron James are able to be vocally critical of everything from the White House to pop culture.

In fact, just in the last few years, LeBron has celebrated those like Colin Kaepernick for refusing to stand for the national anthem and referred to the President of the United States as “u bum.” He went even further to describe the Americans who supported President Trump, as people who “make choices and say things that are uneducated.”

Yet rather than criticize a communist country for failing to recognize basic human rights, earlier this week LeBron directed his criticism towards those vocalizing their support for the people of Hong Kong. He, and the rest of the NBA, disgustingly defend communism and its total control over people’s lives at the expense of our most fundamental freedoms because they are so fearful of losing out on the expanding Chinese market driven by its nearly 1.5 billion consumers.

I am sick and tired of America getting kicked around and put down by those who benefit from our capitalist society and open, free speech. Our American values are our nation’s greatest export and LeBron’s response makes it clear that he feels those values are up for sale when trying to curry favor with communist dictatorships to expand his personal profit margins.

The freedoms and liberties that we enjoy as Americans were paid for with the blood of American heroes, and generations of brave servicemen and women have made the ultimate sacrifice in the centuries since to ensure we remain what President Lincoln called, “the last best hope of earth.”

That is why LeBron’s story is only possible in America and not in China, where you are told what to do and what to think. His incredible rise from the poor streets of Akron, Ohio to the wealthy Los Angeles suburbs is only possible because of American freedom and opportunity. It is heartbreaking that he is so quick to sellout those same values in order to make more money from a foreign and corrupt government.

Despite him, and others, heaping praise on Chinese dictators and their oppression of human rights, America still remains the only nation where you are able to achieve success through hard work and determination. If you were to open the gates on China’s border, more people would flow out than in. Yet here in the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of people trying to claw their way in for a shot at the American Dream.

While LeBron James has achieved the American Dream, he can’t stop dreaming about Chinese money. And although LeBron did not listen to his words before, I hope he will internalize these words of Dr. King and think of the people in Hong Kong still struggling for their freedom: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:11 PM

    Yet somehow Congressman Smithers can't see anything wrong with all that Ru$$ian money infesting the repube party.


    Or could Congressman Smithers be too blind to see?


    HOW CONVENIENT!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:35 PM

    Who are you calling idiot? The name is "Trump"... "President Trump".

    Oh, but you're that cool wordsmith anonymous who posts here. You got those cool rhymes Trump chumps and snazzy beat poet stylings like Mango Menace. Kerouac is probably jealous in hell of your cool smooth rhymes. So clever. So smart. So artistic.

    Nah, just some jackass who's husband stopped paying attention to him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:25 AM

    @7:16

    Great response. Way to prove whatever point you think you are making.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:26 AM

    Chumps for tRUMPs are soooo superior!

    Also like how he "both sides do it " criticizes both tRUMP and the democrats who oppose tRUMP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:39 PM

      @10:26

      Are you ok? Seriously, your obsession with calling the President's supporters chumps in your incoherent posts is troubling. Perhaps you need a hobby or a friend. Maybe join a support group. Possibly get your husband to take you on a date. Learn to live life.
      I'll keep you in my prayers.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous7:49 AM

    Pray for gun control and women's rights too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:42 AM

      Do women not have rights?

      Delete
  6. Anonymous8:29 PM

    Here's where the president himself goes far beyond calling his former supporters chumps.

    Calling his fellow republicans "human scum?"

    Why not!

    Get down in the pigpen with pigs...(what do they say?)

    "The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!" https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1187063301731209220

    Meantime keep complaining about the other side.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:45 AM

      An irrational foe is an irrational foe. It really doesn't matter what color their tie is. Ask Bernie Sanders how he feels about what the DNC did to him in the primaries.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous8:50 AM

    Pray that the border wall Trump is building in Colorado gets extended to Missouri?!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous9:29 AM

    From one of the high priests of the Brotherhood of Perpetually Butthurt and Persecuted Republican Brothers:


    Two things are true

    There’s only been ONE man EVER who was always right & deserves blind loyalty & his name was Jesus;

    And

    No matter what a Republican does the left will never be fair to them. What they want is Republicans who will douse themselves in kerosene & light a match.
    5:37 AM - 24 Oct 2019
    https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1187347297539100672

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous11:43 AM

    Mirrors are cheap. 8:50, your nongender specific friend at 8:29 should go buy one. As for you, why is the left so obsessed with Mexico?

    ReplyDelete