Editor, Gazette-Journal:

This in response to Dawn Dale’s recent letter to the Gazette-Journal (“Honoring America,” Sept. 28 Readers Write). In it she states that the NFL players are “taking a knee” to disrespect the National Anthem and our flag.

I would respectfully submit that it is much deeper than this. They are protesting an issue that has been smoldering in this country for much too long: racial inequality. The numbers are there to show excessive force being used by police against African Americans, along with black men being imprisoned in disproportionate numbers for nonviolent crimes. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I remember as a kid in the early ’60s watching the TV as Civil Rights demonstrators were bitten by dogs, beaten by police, and knocked down with firehoses. I was shocked, and asked my father why they were marching? He answered: “Because something is wrong, son. Something is wrong.”

Yes. Ms. Dale, something is w...