Just sayin’ by Don Frost

            “Just sayin’” has become something of an annoying verbal and literary crutch. But at the same time there are instances when it is singularly appropriate. It’s a reference to a thought or idea that stands alone and is self-evident; that doesn’t invite further comment, though some would feel compelled to do so anyhow.

            FOR EXAMPLE, right now thousands of Afghans are stuck in their hell hole of a country and they desperately want out, preferably to live in America. Many of these people worked with the American military as translators or in other capacities during the 20 years we fought there. They and their families have been marked for death by the Taliban.

            Obviously the Taliban isn’t going to simply let these people board a flight to the U.S.A. But possibly, though devious means, they could book a flight to Mexico. From there, as thousands of Latin Americans continue to demonstrate, they need only present themselves to American authorities at the border and tell them they seek political asylum. Then they’ll be given a court date up to three years hence when their case will be heard, and they’ll be turned loose to go wherever they like in America. Mission accomplished.

            Just sayin’.

            PRESIDENT BIDEN has a serious problem at that border. Thousands of citizens of Latin American countries are swarming there, eager to get into America. They don’t necessarily want to become Americans; they just want to live here. Biden’s policy is to simply turn them loose, pending a court ruling on their petition for political asylum. Many, if not most, find refuge in “sanctuary cities” where they simply disappear in Spanish-speaking enclaves, their court dates ignored and, ultimately, forgotten. This is so because it has been decreed that it is “racist” to hold them to their obligation to appear in court on the appointed date.

            The solution to Biden’s problem just might be Colin Kaepernick. He’s the ex-football player who infamously knelt before games during the playing of our national anthem. He did this, he said,  “as a protest against racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic oppression of black people.”

            Biden should send him on a tour of Latin America where he could inform the people there just how awful it would be for them if they lived in America. Surely his expertise on life here could discourage would-be immigrants from clogging our immigration system as well as spare them the horrors of living under “systemic oppression.”

            When their playing days are over ex-NFL players find some other line of work. Some go into broadcasting football games, others get into coaching or join the front office of a professional team. Still others parlay their gridiron fame into more public venues by opening, say, a restaurant. Kaepernick has built a lucrative post-football career by condemning his country; in pontificating about what a lousy country this is.

            “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he said. “. . . There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” he added in a reference to American police.

            With such oppression and murderous cops patrolling the streets of America, what Latino in his right mind would want to come here?

            Of course, if he toured South of the Border, he’d have to skip the details of how “racist America” has kept him downtrodden. After football he became a spokesman for Nike which put out an ad featuring him and the ludicrous tag lines, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” What Nike paid him more than compensated for whatever he “sacrificed” by bad-mouthing his country.

            In fact, he became something of a dictator at Nike. When the company spent untold thousands of dollars to develop a sneaker that featured the Betsy Ross Flag, Colin refused to endorse it because that early American flag, he said, “represented slavery.” Nike scuttled plans to market the shoe.

            When not lecturing the rest of us on how the country should be run he started Kaepernick Publishing which will publish his memoir. Next month Netflix will premiere “Colin in Black & White,” a six-episode series about his teen age years.

            All together “racist America” has rewarded him to the point where his net worth is estimated at $20 million. Lots of white people would cheerfully welcome being similarly oppressed.

            Just sayin’.

            IN THE ’50s all weather anomalies were attributed to “The Bomb,” a reference to ongoing testing of nuclear weapons by America and Russia. If a summer was unusually hot or a winter unusually cold; if there were especially severe or numerous tornados or hurricanes; if there was flooding; if there were earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, some pundit would intone, “It’s The Bomb!”

            This theme grew to be a popular inspiration for dozens of horror movies of the period. “Them” was about giant mutant ants created by nuclear testing in the American desert. Godzilla, too, was spawned by “The Bomb.” And there was any number of monsters given birth by nuclear-generated heat that melted sections of the North and South Poles.

            Things have changed. Now we know the truth. In 2021 we now know that weather anomalies are caused by climate change, aka global warming. Even now some anonymous Hollywood writer might be working on a script in which a giant ice berg breaks loose from one of the poles and, as it drifts slowly toward the equator, a new hideous beast is hatched to wreck havoc on Tokyo – or some other city. “It’s Climate Change!” some pundit will be sure to intone.

            Just sayin’.

            THANKS TO TEXAS, the abortion controversy has been revived. No one likes abortions, not even those who champion Roe vs. Wade. It’s taking a human life at its most formative and vulnerable stage. Only women without compassion seek it out as a means of birth control. Those who do undergo the procedure do so with the greatest reluctance, and it’s a decision that haunts them for the rest of their days. Still they do it for the most compelling and deeply personal reasons.

            The Texas measure bans abortion for virtually any reason. One woman, a fan of the measure, said on network news, out loud and without embarrassment, “Thousands of babies’ lives have been saved.”

            What nonsense. How naive. The image of an ostrich with its head in the sand springs to mind. All Texas did was arrange things so people could pretend – so they could tell themselves and each other – that abortions no longer were taking place. Abortions have been a fact of life for thousands of years and will continue to be so for thousands more. Legislation couldn’t stop them before Roe and no new legislation is going to stop them now.

            The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization dedicated to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, estimates that in 1967, before Roe, 829,000 illegal abortions were performed. In 2014, after Roe, 652,000 were performed. If you wanted to make a dubious comparison, Roe “saved” 177,000 babies.

            The only question that faced Texas – and the rest of the country now – is will those abortions be performed legally or illegally; with safety in a sanitary, professional setting or fraught with danger in a back alley? It’s a hard truth that when a woman determines to have an abortion – for whatever reason – that abortion will happen and that baby/fetus is doomed. If the abortion is legal, the mother survives. If the abortion is illegal, perhaps the mother dies, too.