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“This is so beyond me, the way this thing has caught re. I think it has resonat- ed because there is passion, there is sincerity and there is humility in my message. I didn’t lob any grenades at him. There is too much of that going on.”
was contacted by somebody who read it a couple hours later who told me I was going to have a busy social me- dia day. I figured nobody takes time to read anything on social media, especially something that long.”
But people did read it. Republican Presidential Candi- date Dr. Ben Carson read the letter and shared it the day after Amos posted. Fox News Commentator and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee did likewise a day or two later. The website Snopes.com, which bills itself as verifying urban legends, checked out Amos and con- firmed he is who he said he was in his letter.
“I told them my wife will be glad to know that after 30 years of marriage,” Amos quipped.
So it’s 20 million views or so and counting. And re- sponses have come from law enforcement officers and law enforcement supporters pledging their allegiance with comments like:
Exactly how a lot of us feel!
...Yes, it was (Kapernick’s) skills, his talents and his determination that contributed to his success, but the opportunity and freedom to exercise those skills, talents, and determination is the product of our founding fathers and all those who have continued to defend those freedoms and build upon the seeds planted for a free society...
Chris, my father has become extremely emotional since a TIA a few years ago. He had always been an intensely patriotic man, and this issue has greatly disturbed him. I’ve printed out what you’ve written, as I think it will serve as a salve for him.
I stand for the National Anthem as I stand for you... God bless you for standing up for our men in blue. I have to applaud the gentleman that you are for
making your points free of anger, with complete ci- vility and respect, and most of all for calling Colin Kaepernick out on his deliberate dissemination of promoting a false narrative while you advocate for your brothers and sisters in blue!
Check his Facebook page in a couple of days and there will be dozens more responses that underscore how even continued protests cannot deny that our flag is still
there. And that’s the only gain Amos has sought in his effort, despite numerous opportunities that have come his way.
“It is so rewarding that that my most impactful act in law enforcement has come after my 27-year career,” Amos confided. “This is so beyond me, the way this thing has caught fire. I think it has resonated because there is passion, there is sincerity and there is humility in my message. I didn’t lob any grenades at him. There is too much of that going on.”
So that leads to the question that you are all probably wondering right now. Well, Amos doesn’t have a defini- tive answer, but he has a good idea.
“I believe he has read it,” Amos noted about Kaeper- nick. “He has never contacted me. But the Bay Area me- dia has contacted me. They have done stories on it. I’m sure by now he has probably read it.”
If Amos did hear from Kaepernick, he knows what he would say to him. And you can be sure that would evoke the passion of serving as a law enforcement officer for nearly 30 years combined with the counsel that is innate to a pastor.
“It’s easy to paint a wall, but it’s much harder to do the trim work around the windows,” Pastor Amos anal- ogized. “It’s that old adage that you can’t use such broad strokes. Are there police officers in this country collect- ing pay for doing something unjustly? There are 300 mil- lion people in this country. I’m sure there are. But you can’t use such a broad brush and indicate they all are. And if he says that’s not what he meant, well, then he should say what he means.”
Amos went on to say he didn’t have any more time or energy to invest in Kaepernick, so he is not. He was a huge NFL fan, but watching his beloved Miami Dolphins when the season began on Sept. 11 and seeing members of that team take a knee during the National Anthem forced him to turn off his television set.
And he again said what so many were thinking when they saw that act or similar ones: “They can pat them- selves on the back thinking they accomplished some- thing. But Rosa Parks they are not.”
That might be the point of his letter. Amos doesn’t want to make this a civil rights issue. Or an officers’ rights issue. It’s a do-what’s-right issue for him.
Toward that end, another response recently came in from a woman who is a former law enforcement officer and is married to a law enforcement officer. She told Amos that she has six kids, four of whom are adopted like Kaepernick, and that she called them all together to read them his letter.
“She told me they were all crying,” he shared. “And she thanked me for showing her kids what real grace looked like.”
Grace was there in black and white, words that made a stand for all law enforcement as to the beauty of the red, white and blue.
448 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ OCTOBER 2016