KY Senate president weeps, expresses ‘hurt’ over UK players kneeling during anthem
Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers wept on the Senate floor Monday in talking about how hurt he was to see the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team kneeling during the national anthem before a game Saturday at Florida.
Stivers said the kneeling is protected by freedom of speech. “Was it at the right place or the right time, that is debatable,” he said before reading a letter of his uncle, Franklin Stivers, in combat during the Korean War in December 1950, and talking about his son’s duty in the military.
Stivers’ emotional speech highlighted a round of reaction across the state regarding the kneeling.
Laurel County Sheriff John Root and Jailer Jamie Mosely held a “burning party” of UK basketball apparel in protest. Root said on a Facebook post that UK may have won the game but lost respect. He criticized coach John Calipari, who joined the team in kneeling, for allowing the event.
Calipari defended his players, saying they care about the United States and are trying to understand life. The players said their action was in protest for various reasons, including racial injustice and the riot last Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol.
Stivers, in delivering what he said was one of the most difficult speeches in his political career, said young people in this country often don’t understand older people like him. He’s 59.
“People have died for this country. They have died to allow young men to go out on that floor and have the opportunity to play sports and speak their mind,” said Stivers, his voice cracking.
He said there are young men like his son who is in the military.
“He could have lived life without going into the military but he went, knowing that he will come home someday, hopefully of his own volition. And as his father, I pray that it is not in a flag-draped coffin.
“So you want to know the hurt that a parent has when he sees that, that people protest this nation and protest this flag, which is symbolic of my uncle and symbolic of what my son is willing to do, understand the hurt.”
The legislative leader said people should “step back and think about why young men and young women of all nationalities want to have a discussion.
“For the young people of this nation, think about the older people like me who have read these letters of their uncles, and know that their fathers and the grandfathers served, and were willing to serve, even until the point they may not come back.”
He said his son is willing to serve “to make sure that flag is something we can figuratively wrap around us every night and sleep with the protections of freedom. That is why some people hurt when they see this, even though they are protected and are free speech under the First Amendment.”
Sen. Johnnie L. Turner, R-Harlan, said the flag needs “all the respect that it can get.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 6:14 PM.
