New Orleans Saints quarterback initially said that kneeling during the National Anthem disrespects the flag referencing Colin Kaepernicks sideline protests from 2016. I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of america. When the National Anthem is played and when i look at the flag of the United States i envision my two grandfathers who fought for this country during world war ii one in the army and one in the marine corps both risking their lives to protect our country and try to make our country and this world a better place. So every time i stand with my hand over my heart looking at that flag and singing the National Anthem that is what i think about. In many cases it brings me to tears thinking about all that has been sacrificed. Again the response was immediate. Many athletes took issue including lebron james and richard sherman. Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins responded with a pair of instagram videos one of which he later deleted. Jenkins said this, quote, were done asking, drew. And people who share your sentiments who express those and push them throughout the world, the airwaves, are the problem. And its unfortunate because i considered you a friend. I looked up to you. Youre somebody i had a great deal of respect for but sometimes you should shut the f up. Brees apologized via instagram writing in part i take full responsibility and accountability. I recognize that i should do less talking and more listening and when the black community is talk k about their pain we all need to listen. For that i am very sorry and i ask your forgiveness. Enter Ellen Degeneres. She tweeted, and deleted, what did she regret . Apparently saying this, quote, like so many of you i am angry and i am sad people of color in this country have faced injustice for far too long for things to change things must change, we must commit ourselves to this change with conviction and love. Some objected to her use of people of color as a word choice. Others thought that she was milk toast. Ellen then issued a tearful apology. I know im not going to say the right thing. I know there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be in disagreement with what i say, but i have a platform and i have a voice and i have always stood for equality. I have always wanted to be the voice for people who felt like they didnt have a voice because i know what that feels like. And maybe you dont agree with how its coming out but you have to understand it. Here in philadelphia, inga saffron the Pulitzer Prize winning architectural critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a thoughtful essay including this. You can be appalled and heartbroken by our countrys deadly racism but still quake at at what the damage portends for philadelphia. Racism is built on strong foundations. The momentary satisfaction of destroying a few buildings does nothing to remove that crisis. It was initially accompanied by a headline which she did not write which said this. Buildings matter, too. The newspaper issued an apology saying while no such comparison was intended, intent is ultimately irrelevant and editors attempt to capture a columnists nuanced argument in a few words went horribly wrong and the resulting hurt and anger are plain. The New York Times drew fire for an essay by a sitting u. S. Senator republican tom cotton in support of the government using troops to quell rioting saying in part, some elites have excused this orgy of violence in the spirit of radical chic calling it an understandable response to the wrongful death of george floyd. Those excuses are built on a revolting moral kwifl ens of rioters and looters to peaceful, law abiding protesters. A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldnt be confused with bands of miscreants. Protests of the times having published senator cottons thoughts came from both inside and outside the New York Times. A number of employees expressed their disapproval of the peace. More than 800 staff signed a letter protesting its publication. One tweet came from the New York Times magazine writer Nicole Hannah jones saying ill probably get in trouble for this but to not Say Something would be immoral. As a black woman, as a journalist, as an american i am deeply ashamed that we ran this. Taking note from the sidelines, veteran journalist, multi Emmy Award Winning broadcaster Jeff Greenfield weighed in. He said, about senator cottons oped of the New York Times, if you dont want an oped page that prints views you strongly disagree with you dont really want an oped page. You want a myed page. For sharing his thoughts, greenfield then became the brunt of enmity including from New York Times opinion columnist who replied saying this. Free and open discourse carries an implicit within the accepted bounds of democratic society. Now the New York Times has said it wont run senator cottons essay in tomorrows print edition as planned. By the way, i want to know what you think. Go to my website this hour. Smerconish. Com. Answer this weeks survey question. Should they be running it in sundays print edition . Now, here are my thoughts. If we choose to disengage well fall into a trap established by those parties more interested in division than unity. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from a viral video. This is a former nfler who this week published a nineminute video titled how to have an uncomfortable conversation with a black man. Its been viewed more than 6. 5 million times. The video is simple in presentation. It is just him looking straight into a camera addressing from a black mans perspective such thorny issues as white privilege, systemic racism, white on black crime versus black on black crime, and why can an africanamerican say the n word when a white person never can . Here is a clip of what he had to say on that subject. The n word is synonymous with oppression, execution, and subordination. Black people took something that was meant and originally used as evil and we turned it into a term of endearment. So white people, i submit that you cant, shouldnt, nor should you ever have a desire to say that word whether quoting the rap song, the movie, or anything. On my Radio Program this week he told me why he made the video in the first place. There is a clear, racial divide. Let me stand in this gap and try to connect my White Brothers and sisters to my Black Brothers and sisters and its obvious, it is so obvious, michael, that my White Brothers and sisters across america are ready to help. They just dont know how. And so i wanted to give them a crash course on how. Thats the lesson. Yes, this National Conversation is long overdue but beyond the talking we need to listen. Not shut out. Even if it is sometimes uncomfortable. You dont need me to tell you emotions are raw. People are very upset. More raw, more upset than ive seen in my adult lifetime. People want to talk about it. Thats good. Sometimes they choose the wrong words. Words that strike others as horribly insensitive. In that raw moment, the backlash is instantaneous and it can be harsh. The harshness stills further dialogue and were all poorer for it. Lets keep on talking. When the speaker errs the listener should correct nicely. When the correction comes the reply should be thoughtful. We not only need that form of constructive dialogue. We must have it. A house divided against itself cannot stand only through reasoned National Discourse born from love not hate, patience not anger. Can we achieve equal justice under law. Joining me now to discuss nba legend Turner Sports analyst sir Charles Barkley. Charles, are we ready as a nation to have the kind of conversation that is necessary . Weve been ready for a long time, michael. You know, its interesting listening to your message. You cant make everybody happy. No matter what you say there are people out there who are angry, evil, mean. Theyre never going to listen. That is one of the reasons i never, never use social media. Everybody tries to play god, judge, and jury. Im never going to use social media for that aspect. Because it doesnt matter what you say. Some people just got bad lives so theyre always going to be negative. But we wanted to have this conversation for a long time. We need to have this conversation. And im all in. Anything you want to talk about. So first start with your reaction to the killing of george floyd, the resulting protests, and the response by President Trump. Well, that was the first first of all, it is stressful, stressful being black. You think about what we have been through just in the last three months. You saw the young man in atlanta, georgia, who was shot who was out jogging. I mean, if you cant go out jogging without getting shot that is just sad. Secondly you saw the young lady in new york screaming at the young black man because he told her to put her dog on a leash. She says, no. Im going to tell the police a black man is harassing me. That was her safety net. Then you see mr. Floyd. I think that was the reason everybody is so upset, weve heard about these incidents before. This was the first time i think in my lifetime ive actually seen a person die right before my eyes. And you see this cop got his foot on his neck and he has his hands in his pocket like hes just sitting there chilling out. And i think that, to me, was the most painful aspect, to hear this man begging for his life, telling people he cant breathe. You got people standing there saying, hey, dude, hes telling you he cant breathe. I think just to see somebody die to me that was, man, just so sad. It also has to make you wonder. You referenced the Ahmaud Arbery case in georgia and of course the george floyd case. Where would we be, charles, without the video . Because my hunch is without that video, it would have been the Police Officer in the georgia case the former cops word that would be accepted and none of us would be any the wiser. I think that is what really frustrate black people all around. When you see stuff on videotape, that is the only proof you have. And if you cant get justice when you have a videotape, youre never going to get justice. I mean, think about that. If you see what your eyes see on a videotape and there is no recourse judicially, youll say, what do i have to do to be seen and heard . That is the problem we all have with this situation. The president said yesterday that the greatest thing for Race Relations is economic recovery. Is he right . Well, he is about a hundred years behind, yes. First of all, people talk about black and white. It is really just about economics. You got all the poor black people. Theyre in the worst neighborhoods. They are in the worst schools. So theyre already behind the, quoteunquote, 8 ball growing up. So we got a lot of crime in our neighborhoods. Some of it is obviously selfimposed but you have to realize if you put all these black people in bad neighborhoods and dont give them a quality education, theyre never there are going to be some exceptions, athletically, entertainment wise but the majority are not going to make it out of the hood. Charles, Roger Goodell, i think i have footage and i want to show you and everybody else Roger Goodell representing the nfl yesterday took some ownership of the mishandling of kaep ka mishandling of colin kaepernick. Around the country emblematic of the centuries of silence, inequality, and oppression of brook players, coaches, fans, and staff. We are listening. I am listening. I will be reaching out to players who have raised their voices and others on how we can improve and go forward for a better and more united nfl family. What do you make thaf reaction, charles . Well, listen. When you run a 20 billion business, you have an opportunity to go back in these communities and make a difference. You know, listen. Im not going to bash Roger Goodell. Michael, two weeks ago they were bribing teams to hire black coaches. I mean, come on. Lets be realistic. Two weeks ago they were going to give you draft picks, which is basically bribing you, to hire black coaches. So the nfl has a long way to go. You know, same thing with college football. The lack of black coaches but the nfl is the fact they have to bribe teams to hire black people, that is a joke and really sad. I respect your independent thinking. I love that i never know what im getting from Charles Barkley other than your take not tethered to talking points. Talk to me about President Trump in the past week in the aftermath of George Floyds killing. Well, you know, i guess im not going to bash the president. Im not a fan of the president. But im not going to bash him because this thing started way before him. Way before him. To act like these three years hes been in office hes responsible for everything, i think that is disingenuous. I will say this, though. Hes the president of the United States. Hes supposed to look out for everybody. Not black, not white, not hispanic, not rich, not poor, not jewish. He is the president of the United States. And i think you can fairly say he has done an awful job of trying to represent all parties even going back to charlottesville, virginia. But i think he has lost the fact that he represents everybody in the United States. And the truth of the matter is, he doesnt try to build people together. He doesnt try to build an alliance. And he is awful when it comes to the pandemic and when we talk about racism, he has not said anything amazing to make you think, okay. He was willing to listen. He has done nothing like that. The first thing he should have said was i just saw a man get killed on national television. That cannot happen. Thats all he had to say. No, these guys out here looting and protesting, im going to bring in the military. He didnt say you know what . We cannot have a man killed by the cops on national television. I represent everybody in the United States and that is where i think he dropped the ball. Charles, you know, we claim you as a philly guy. I came into the studio this morning and i drove around the city hall apron. You know the lay of the land in philadelphia. And National Guardsmen are already in place because today will be a big day of protests not only in philly but all across the country. What is it you would say to those coming out to protest wherever they might be, big city, small town, today . Listen, im for protests. Im never going to be for rioting and looting. Ive always been against that. But march in peace, talk to each other, and the thing is, michael, i think you have to be really careful when youre protesting because if it gets out of hand one thing that scared me just watching tv the last few days about this pandemic is still going on and when they are spraying tear gas into these crowds, obviously everybody is taking their masks off and coughing and coughing and coughing. So i think, listen. Lets make sure all these protests are peaceful because the last thing we need is a big repeat of this coronavirus. Just to circle back to where i began, i hope dialogue like this continues. What most concerns me beyond justice for george floyd is that if people are shut down and are unwilling or afraid to have candid conversation, well never advance. Your final thought . Listen, you cannot worry what every fool on the internet says about you. Like i said, i never use social media. I never read social media. You know, you talk about Ellen Degeneres. People complained about something. You talk about the oped pieces. Listen, you cannot make everybody happy. But you know what you can do . You can do your part to be part of the solution. The only person you can control is you. Thats the only person you can control. Sir charles, thank you as always. Thank you for having me. Be safe. Ill see you soon. What are your thoughts . Tweet me smerconish or go to my Facebook Page and ill read some responses during the course of the program. From twitter, you misunderstand free speech, smerconish. It goes both ways. People are free to speak. Employers and the public are free to reject statements. That is free speech as well. Well of course, tania, i am not asking you to accept the words of tom cotton in this instance. My question is not do you agree with senator cotton. The question is, is that a viewpoint that should at least be given an airing for consideration . It is a two way street. I totally agree with you. But the instances, not all of them, the instances i offered at the outset of the program are i mean, Ellen Degeneres has to offer a tearful apology because what she said was milk toast . Come on. That is ridiculous. How willing do you think Ellen Degeneres will be in the next instance to participate in conversation . And hers is a voice you want at the table. That is my premise. Remember, i want to know what you think. Go to my website. Smerconish. Com. I just used this as an example. Should the times be running a United States senators opinion in the sunday print edition. Theyre not going to. Should they have . Still to come during the peak of unrest after the killing