sensitivities

-- The pale.
-- The victimized.
-- The traumatized.
-- An era of wounds....
-- Of past wounds made present

The shoes were not designed to offend.

Red, white and blue with the image of a historical American flag stitched on the heel and a July 4 release week, they seemed like an innocuous attempt by Nike to capitalize on the hot dogs and fireworks and patriotism that mark the holiday.

Instead, the company found itself at the center of a political firestorm. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick reportedly complained about the shoes, and Nike canceled the sneakers’ production.

Kaepernick, who is a face of the company, told Nike that he found the flag — designed in 1777 with a circle of thirteen stars for each American colony — offensive because of its connection to the era of slavery, according to the Wall Street Journal.

-- Various articles within the last month have suggested reparations should be paid to black people whose American ancestors had been slaves. None of the stories tells what sort of reparations might be paid or the per capita payment. Like the Israelis whose parents faced the Nazi "endloesung" or "final solution" of the concentration camp fires, it seems to be tacitly understood that to mention an actual payment ... well, who has the nerve or will for that?

-- I saw an article/column recentlty that asked where all the men had disappeared to in latter-day TV dramas. No doubt they all snuck away on flag-tagged sneakers... priests and other oppressors tip-toeing into the shadows where their unfix-able sins of the past can be viewed (sort of) and castigated and never adequately measured or monetized.

-- Ah, wait a few days and perhaps there will be another grade-school shooting rampage and another bid for gun-control and horror and grief and ... callouses.