Tuesday Thought #1

The Funny Papers

Steve Sack, Rick McKee, Mike Smith, Nick Anderson, David Fitzsimmons, Jim Morin, Mike Luckovich, Tom Stiglich, Scott Stantis, Clay Bennett

Texas School Denies Freedom of Speech

Yesterday the television was on at work, and, while it was on mute—“President” _____ was speaking so it’s best to have it on mute—I read the chiron where _____ was saying that NFL owners “must not allow” their players to take a knee during the national anthem. And I thought, if we start doing things that way, how many more of our freedoms and rights will the higher ups “not allow.”

Then I came across this story ...

At a recent student assembly at Midland High School in ... where else ... Texas, students were led to believe, or were told, that choosing to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance is against the law; it’s a crime, y’all.

Now, news reports aren’t clarifying what the presentation was all about, but there is no mistake that this slide ...

... was shown to students during the assembly. And officials from Midland High School claimed the slide was taken out of context, even though the message is quite clear.

Stand. Or else.

Now, even though school officials are saying the message was taken out of context, Woodrow Baily, a district official, said if students don’t want to stand for the pledge, they’re free to provide a note from their parents excusing them.

And that’s a lie, too. In 1943, when America was supposedly ‘great,’ the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects students from being forced to stand during the Pledge. It isn’t a crime to stay seated; it isn’t a crime to not place your hand over your heart; it isn’t a crime to kneel during the national anthem.

But some of those folks in positions of authority are trying to decide what they will “allow” people to do, from professional athletes to students in a school. And, if you’re okay with that, if you’re okay with losing your Freedom of Speech, how many more of your freedoms are you willing to lose because I guarantee if we keep on this way, one day none of us will be free to do or say anything.

And won’t America be great then?

DeadState

My Two Cents ... on Colin Kaepernick, the Bigot-In-Chief, Taking A Knee, and The National Anthem

Is the president a racist? I don’t know, though I’m beginning to believe that if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, we oughta just slip a white sheet over its head and call it a racist.

I mean, this is the man who called brown-skinned people from Mexico drug dealers, rapists and murderers.

This is the man who called brown skinned people from the Middle East terrorists and tried to ban them from coming to this country.

And, yes, this is the same man who watched a group of white supremacists and neo-Nazis and Klan members march though Charlottesville, Virginia, and said some of the are nice people.

But, this week, a brown skinned man, an African American man, a professional athlete who is using his position to protest racial inequality in this country by taking a knee during the National Anthem is a “son of a bitch” who should be fired.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sensing a theme here: white people are good, while brown people are drug dealing, terroristic, sons-of-bitches ... at least according to the Bigot-In-Chief.

Now, to be fair, _____ did make these latest asinine remarks about Colin Kaepernick’s First Amendment right to Free Speech and protest, in Alabama, where, for the most part, people of color are still “those” people, so he was clearly pandering to his audience. But I’m here to tell you that, as a white man, and I am really really white, I would rather take a knee with Kaepernick than stand alongside a president who is trying to divide this country into us—white—and them—everyone else.

And it all began so innocently; _____ was supposed to be campaigning in Alabama for Senator Luther Strange and, as he does, he drifted off-topic to ask his crowd, his base, his Deplorables, if they’d “love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired’?”

Fired, for taking a stand in this country? That’s the America that _____ wants to go back to, the so-called ‘Great’ America; where people cannot speak out against injustice, racial inequality, lest a man who is oh so patriotic he avoided the draft five times because his feet hurt, a man who is so patriotic he’s never lifted a finger to help anyone at any time, anywhere ever in this country, unless it served him first.

That’s our Bigot-In-Chief, but, luckily, as we saw yesterday, a majority of athletes all across this country took a knee with Kaepernick instead of standing alongside a man who decries Free Speech unless it comes from a Nazi.

 But what is it about the national anthem? I mean, why can’ Colin Kaepernick just carry a protest sign, or work with the Black Lives Matter Movement, start a charity to raise awareness, offer to work with the African American community and the police departments ... all of which he has done; but why the National Anthem ...

Perhaps it’s because Colin Kaepernick if one of the few people that know all the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” For most of us, the song is a couple of lines about rockets and flags and being proud:

Oh say can you see,

By the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed,

At the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars,

Through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched,

Were so gallantly streaming.

And thy rocket's red glare,

Thy bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night,

That our flag was still there.

Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave,

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

The story, as I remember it, was that the song writer, Francis Scott Key, was a prisoner on a British ship during the War of 1812 and wrote this poem while watching the American troops battle back the invading British in Baltimore. That, however, is not quite the whole story ...

Francis Scott Key was an aristocrat, city prosecutor in Washington, D.C., a slave-owner and an anti-abolitionist; he believes that blacks were mentally inferior, and so their masters should treat them with more Christian kindness. And, should slavery end, he didn’t want the free blacks to stay here, in his country; he wanted them to go home, to Africa.

And, since he didn’t think highly of black men, he was clearly unnerved at the idea of the Colonial Marines, a battalion of runaway slaves who fought with the British Royal Army in exchange for their freedom. These black men were not only a terrifying example of what slaves would do if allowed to fight for their freedom, but also an affront to the white superiority theory that men like Francis Scott Key believed in.

All of this came to a boiling point at the Battle of Bladensburg, where Key was serving as a lieutenant when he came upon a battalion of Colonial Marines. His troops were overtaken by the very black folks Key loathed, and he ran home in Georgetown to avoid capture. But those black troops, along with the British forces, marched into Washington, D.C., burning the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building and the White House, all of which was much too much for Francis Scott Key.

And so how do we get to Francis Scott Key as a prisoner on a boat in Baltimore where he wrote that poem? Well, we don’t, really; in fact, far from being a captive, Francis Scott Key willingly went aboard a British ship to beg for the release of his friend, William Beanes. And Key was on that ship watching the bloody battle of Fort McHenry—a battle that American forces lost, though they managed to inflict heavy casualties on the British—when the idea struck him for what would become “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Rockets red glare; bombs bursting in air; the flag was still there. It’s all so anthemic and pride-inducing, except most of us don’t know that Key wrote a full third stanza denouncing those former slaves who fought with the British army:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,

That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion

A home and a Country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

In other words, Key hoped that the blood of those former slaves, those “hirelings”, would wash away the pollution of the British invaders; he wanted those black men dead. And yet we stand for his words? Well, at least since 1931, when “The Star Spangled Banner” was officially designated the national anthem; and ever since then, from time to time, people in this country have debated the suitability of its lyrics, from its militaristic tone, to its apparent joy at the death of slaves.

What about a change? I mean, it’s been the anthem less than a hundred years; why not a switch to “God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful". At least those songs don’t celebrate battle and the murder of freed slaves.

Yet here we are, still asking people to stand for that song because we’ve forgotten, or never knew, or simply ignored, the meaning behind the lyrics and the temperament and feelings of the man who wrote it. And yet here we are, asking Colin Kaepernick, or any person of color, or any person who decries any form of racism, to stand for that?

Colin Kaepernick made his decision, during the 2016 NFL pre-season, to kneel, in part, because of a slew of police-involved shooting deaths of black men, including Philando Castile and Alton Sterling:

"I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed."

To stand up for people who are oppressed, and who can no longer stand up for themselves ... and yet we have a president who denounces that stance, who calls Kaepernick a “son of a bitch,” but said nothing, nothing, about a white supremacist who ran down Heather Heyer with his car in Charlottesville this summer.

Kaepernick, however, isn’t the only one to protest; other black NFL stars, like Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch and Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, are also taking a knee, or sitting down, or raising a fist, when the anthem plays.

And it isn’t just the black players; Jenkins' teammate, Chris Long, who is white, put his arm around Jenkins in solidarity when Jenkins raised his fist before a preseason game last month. Long, who is vocal about his political views, played college ball in Charlottesville, at the University of Virginia:

"I think it's a good time for people who look like me to be here for people fighting for equality."

And there has been a fight for equality since forever, for all kinds of people, black, female, gay, lesbian, Muslim; why not have a song that doesn’t denounce any one group, or sing praises upon the death of that one group? Think about the black athlete who put it like this:

"I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag. I know that I am a black man in a white world."

No, that’s not Colin Kaepernick in 2016; that was Jackie Robinson, beloved baseball pioneer and civil rights activist, who wrote those words in his 1972 autobiography, "I Never had It Made."

Kaepernick simply took Robinson’s words and put them into action, by sitting during the pre-game anthem and saying he would not stand "to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color."

Yet he’s a son of a bitch; he’s called un-American, and worse; he’s been told he is disrespecting our military men and women—though those men and women have actually fought for the very rights that Kaepernick is using, Freedom of Speech.

And yesterday, on CNN, one of _____’s henchmen, Steve Mnuchin, said Kaepernick, and any others who would not stand, are also disrespecting first responders; but when did the anthem start applying to first responders and members of the military and not to all of us, no matter our skin color?

There is no disrespect, unless it’s disrespectful to stand for a song that celebrates slavery, and glories in the death of slaves.

Colin Kaepernick is not alone; more and more athletes are following suit, and more and more people are talking about the issues he’s brought forth—which is a good thing; his stance even caught the eye of former NASA astronaut, and former NFL player, Leland Melvin, who released this statement after hearing _____ speak in Alabama the other night:

“To Donald _____

I believe in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of this country even though at the time they were drafted, their tenets of life, liberty justice for all and eventual freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press and petition amendment ratified in Dec 1791, only applied to a select group of people and not ones that looked like me.Donald Trump, I listened to your Alabama rally rant and could not believe how easily you say what you say.

We have become numb to your outlandish acts, tweets and recent retweet of you knocking down Hillary Clinton with a golf ball that you hit.

Donald Trump, your boorish and disgusting actions are not funny. They actually promote violence against women especially when your followers act out what you say.

I used to walk the grounds of UVA in Charlottesville, VA as a graduate student only to watch in horror as those same grounds became a battlefield being trod by Nazi and anti-Semitic worshippers armed with assault style weapons ready to fight to make America White again. (their words). You actually said there were nice people on both sides. People armed and ready to kill other Americans for the purpose of eradicating Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Mexicans, Asians, Latinas and even the first real Americans, Native Americans to make America Great Again were “nice people”?

Comparing this to what you say in condemnation of an unarmed black man peacefully protesting by exercising his constitutional First Amendment rights by silently taking a knee is appalling, unnerving and reprehensible.

Today, you called Colin Kaepernick “a son-of-a-bitch.”

You said he should be fired.

You are calling his white mother a bitch.

The strong contrast in language for a black man and a Nazi is very telling. Do you have any sense of decency or shame in what you say to the American people that are part of your duty to serve respectfully with dignity, presidentially?

Our National Anthem has been edited to try not to offend, because when Francis Scott Key penned the song he watched freed slaves fighting for the British and wrote this stanza:

“And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,

That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion

A home and a Country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

I guess if I were a slave back then I probably would have done anything to obtain freedom from my American oppressors who were whipping, killing, raping, dismembering, hanging or releasing the dogs on people like me all under our Constitution.

In 1814 former slaves fought with the British for their freedom from their American enslavers.

Key witnessed a battle from a ship off the Maryland shore at Fort McHenry, which inspired him to write what became our National Anthem.

I served my country not in the military, but as 1 of 362 American Astronauts that have explored the universe to help advance our civilization. Not just Americans, but all humans. I also was briefly in the NFL and stood for the National Anthem with my hand over my heart. What makes us great is our differences and respecting that we are all created equally even if not always treated that way.

Looking back at our planet from space really helps one get a bigger perspective on how petty and divisive we can be. Donald Trump, maybe you should ask your good friend Mr. Putin to give you a ride on a Soyuz rocket to our International Space Station and see what it’s like to work together with people we used to fight against, where your life depends on it. See the world and get a greater sense of what it means to be part of the human race, we call it the Orbital Perspective.

Donald Trump, please know that you are supposed to be a unifier and a compassionate and empathetic leader. If you can’t do the job then please step down and let someone else try. I pray that you do the right thing.

May God bless you.

Sincerely,

Leland Melvin

Former Astronaut and NFL Player”

Well said, sir, though, as we have seen since his campaign began, and since he took office, this particular president doesn’t listen to We The People ... he’s too busy riling up his base.

So, let’s let Colin Kaepernick’s mother have the last word. And though she started off with a bit of a laugh when _____ first went off, she came back strong. See, when she first heard the President of the United States call her son a “son of a bitch,” Teresa Kaepernick Tweeted:

And that spoke volumes, though Teresa Kaepernick wasn’t done:

“You know, I always say to my husband ... we don’t get too upset over most of this stuff anymore. He and I will look at each other and say, “We do lead an interesting life, I guess.” I mean, how else are you gonna look at it? I can’t be losing sleep over this kind of stuff. It’s disappointing that Trump is the president and talks the way he talks, though. It’s just incredibly disappointing. Rick and I had never been real political people, but prior to when all of the campaigning was going on, I mean, it didn’t take more than a minute to realize we didn’t want Donald Trump in the presidency. The guy is not all there, and I can’t tell you how shocked we were when he won, but we have been pretty vocal about it since long before Colin took a knee. So, we have some pretty strong feelings about that part of things. To see this man that you have no respect for, basically because of all that he’s done in this presidency so far, slandering my kid publicly ...

We didn’t watch his rally, I don’t watch rallies. He’s not playing to me anyway. But I saw on Twitter that he’d said it and I said to my husband, “What the heck,” and I looked to see what was said and I thought, “Aw man, this is just ridiculous that he continues to attack private citizens like this and continues to not be able to see what freedom of speech is and that he just refuses to acknowledge those kind of things.” Yet at the same time, in Charlottesville, he would not call out the Nazis, not call out the white supremacists, but he’s calling out these guys who are peacefully kneeling and asking for their country to do better.”

All Colin Kaepernick, and others, are asking is for us, as a country, as a people, as a world, as a president, to try and do better. Is that really so awful?

Don’t bother, that’s a rhetorical question; I’ll just go back to something I said earlier:

I’d rather take a knee with Colin Kaepernick than stand alongside this president.

Any day of the week.

The Root

CNN
The Daily Kos
Egberto Willies

My Two Cents On Colin Kaepernick Staying Seated During The National Anthem

There are times you have to sit down to take a stand; Rosa Parks did it 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on that bus, and Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the 49ers, did it in 2016 when he decided not to stand for the national anthem during a preseason game. Kaepernick explained:

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

And some people went nuts. How dare he not stand! How dare he take the anthem and turn it into some kind of racial protest! And, as a friend of mine ::: sigh ::: posted on Facebook, “Let him find a new nation.”

Yes, America! Love it or leave! But for goddess’s sake, don’t try to fix it, don’t try to stand up against oppression — especially when you are a person of color yourself, as is Kaepernick.

But how else might he have gotten his point across? A press conference? Sure, a few reporters would have come and written about it, but it would have been nothing more, and a few days later it would have been forgotten. By sitting down, Kaepernick grabbed all the media attention, and that of Americans; he got people talking, and that’s the biggest step, the first step, really, into trying to resolve the race issue in this country.

Oh, and before anyone says ‘What race issue,’ I’m gonna tell you, we still have a race issue. Just look at the vitriol heaped upon our first black president even before he entered office. We have a race problem in America and acting like we don’t, or denigrating those who dare speak out about it, belittling the Black Lives Matter movement or even Colin Kaepernick,  is not going to help anyone.

Let me go back a bit … in New York City, in July of 1966, Sidney Street, a black New York City bus driver, heard on the radio about the shooting of James Meredith, a civil rights activist. Street was incensed that this was happening in America, and so he took an old forty-eight star flag to the street corner and began speaking about how the flag did not represent people of color; no one paid him any mind. So, Sidney Street set the flag on fire, and suddenly a small crowd gathered. His voice was heard; his anger was heard; his pain was heard.

“We don't need no damn flag ! … I burned it. If they let that happen to Meredith, we don't need no damn flag !"

Sidney Street was charged with violating the New York flag desecration statute and was subsequently found guilty. He appealed the verdict all the way to the Supreme Court saying the statute was too broad, it was too vague, and that it punished Street for burning the flag, when he had, in fact, burned it as an act of protest and that is protected by the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court found the statute unconstitutional and reversed the conviction.

And that’s the same thing Kaepernick is doing; he’s protesting; he’s speaking his mind; he’s being American. And he  has the support of his team, the 49ers, who released this statement:

“The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.”

Freedom of expression; trouble is, many people don’t think Kaepernick’s expression was valid because, again, he was talking about race. And that’s a subject too many of us refuse to have, refuse to face, refuse to hear. Even the National Football League [NFL] stood up for Kaepernick:

“Players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the National Anthem."

They say that Colin Kaepernick took a risk by taking this stand, taking a seat, during a preseason game because, right now, his spot as quarterback is not secure. I say, what better time; he’s willing to lose his job to make a statement, to make a point, to start a dialogue.

His decision has sent many fans into overload, racing all around Facebook, and other social media avenues, posting pictures of soldiers standing for the anthem; my favorite is of a soldier who apparently lost both his legs in battle and he’s “standing up” by holding his body up with his arms from a  wheelchair.

People are saying that man stands, why can’t Kaepernick; I say that man stands because he fought for America and what it means to be Americans and the rights we have in America, to not stand if we so choose. To use that soldier’s picture just bolsters the argument that Kaepernick had the right not to stand. That’s America.

For his part, Colin Kaepernick acknowledged how risky his move may have been:

“I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”

Kaepernick, whose mother is white and whose father is black, was raised by a white couple who adopted him; he has felt the sting of racism himself. He told a story of a family vacation he took as a child and the way people treated him differently because he didn’t look like his mother and father:

“We used to go on these summer driving vacations and stay at motels, and every year, in the lobby of every motel, the same thing always happened, and it only got worse as I got older and taller. It didn’t matter how close I stood to my family, somebody would walk up to me, a real nervous manager, and say: ‘Excuse me. Is there something I can help you with?’”

He knows about seeming different, being treated differently, because of appearance, and so his protest of the black lives lost in police shootings, police run-ins, police stops, in this country, is just more of the same.

Colin Kaepernick isn’t the first athlete to speak out against racism in this country, and hopefully he won’t be the last. Last month, several Women's National Basketball Association [WNBA] players spoke to the media about the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, while wearing “Black Lives Matter: Enough Is Enough” T-shirts; later that same month, NBA players Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James opened the ESPY Awards by speaking out about violence against people of color by police:

“The system is broken, the problems are not new, the violence is not new and the racial divide definitely is not new. But, the urgency to create change is at an all-time high.” — Carmelo Anthony

That’s no different than what Colin Kaepernick did, except that he chose a game to make his stand; he chose the national anthem as the background music to his protest. And in doing so, his silence, his talking a seat, might be the loudest protest of all.

As with Sidney Street, sometimes you have to be loud, with a match, or with staying seated, to let people, know, let America know, that we still have work to do.

And we must all realize we have work to do when we realize that over sixty years after Rosa Parks refused to stand as a protest of racial inequality in the country, Colin Kaeprencik had to do the  exact same thing.

Random Musings

We are in the home stretch to our Sometimes Annual, Sometimes Not, Cinco de Never Celebration at Casa Bob y Carlos.

Limes for the Rice and the Pinto Bean Corn Salad? Check.

Limes for the Chipotle Lime Peanuts? The Bo’s House Special Salsa and Guacamole? Check.

Limes for Margaritas? Double check.

Lemons and Oranges for the Shrimp Ceviche? Check.

Wine? Need a few more bottles …

Beer and Liquor? Check.

Now, it’s just a matter of building ceviche and salsa and guacamole and cooking rice, and heating tamales and sopes and  … and … I best get busy …

Last week I posted about the GOP congressmembers who bullied some of their colleagues into voting down an LGBT-protection clause, and how the Democrats went off on the Republicans for being blatantly anti-LGBT haters.

Well, the congressman who introduced the legislation, openly gay Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, is not giving up on his anti-discrimination measure to protect LGBT workers.

Tuesday Maloney vowed that he would try and attach his proposal to the energy and water spending bill scheduled to be debated in the House this week and scheduled for a final vote on Thursday.

“There is a majority [in] the House of Representatives right now to oppose discrimination in the workplace [and] … the only way discrimination is going to win is if Kevin McCarthy keeps rigging the votes.” — Congressman Maloney

Let’s hope McCarthy’s fellow Republicans won’t bend to his bullying this time.

I was over the Chewbacca Mom about ten seconds into the video and the fact that now she’s freaking everywhere makes me wanna boycott anything and everything Star Wars.

If you are one of the few who has yet to see it, move on.

A new version of Roots is set to premiere on the History channel next Monday. I am interested, though I often wonder why not just show the original. Sure it’s about forty years old but the story is the same.

That said … Hot Men Alert!

The new Roots stars — clockwise from upper left — Malachi Kirby, Matthew Goode, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Regé-Jean Page.

Ooh yes; a good story and some eye candy.

It might be just me, but aren't the Avengers and X-Men really just the same movie? And even if they aren’t I have no desire to see either one.

Poor Mark Cuban is conflicted …

A day after offering himself up to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Cuban, who calls himself an independent, said he is also open to being [t]Rump’s Veep.

How does that happen?

Why I am in love with Helen Mirren, Reason #13,849:

When 10-year-old Oliver Burton declared that his dying wish was to have afternoon tea with the Queen of England, he never received an invitation to Buckingham Palace.

Luckily, Dame Helen Mirren, who is playing the Queen in The Audience in London’s West End, stepped up to meet Oliver, who has Down’s syndrome and is also battling terminal spine and bone marrow cancer.

Mirren invited Oliver and his family to the Gielgud Theatre to see the show, and then after she met the young man while still in her Queen drag. She sat and had tea and cakes with the boy — “royal” footman served the tea — and then Oliver met Mirren’s corgis. Finally, Helen Mirren knighted Oliver, giving him the title of Sir.

“She stayed in character for the whole thing. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and well, that’s good enough for us.” — James Browne, Oliver’s father

I didn’t need another reason to love Mirren but I’ll take this one.

The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus was at the center of a disturbing incident at Petco Park last week when, as they were preparing to sing the national anthem, their singing was replaced by a recording of a woman — reportedly the anthem singer from the night before. No one stopped the recording and when the chorus was led off the field afterward they were taunted with homophobic slurs … “you sing like a girl” … from fans.

Afterward, the chorus wanted answers, specifically about whether it was discriminatory or a hate crime. The Padres' investigation concluded it was a mistake, that DJ ArtForm hit the wrong button and played an old recording, but he was fired anyway:

“Based both on the unintentional mistake that was made, as well as the failure to immediately intervene and correct the situation by those who had oversight, we have terminated our relationship with the third-party contractor who was responsible for the error, and taken disciplinary action against our employee who was responsible for the game production on Saturday.

We once again sincerely apologize to members of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, their families and those who came out to support their pride night performance. The Padres organization is proud of our longstanding commitment to inclusion – within both our sport and our community.

We deeply regret that a mistake on our part has called this into question, but accept full responsibility.” 

But now, the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus has announced that it wants the Padres to rehire the DJ — DJ ArtForm — who had been fired for his role in the anthem mess:

"We applaud the San Diego Padres organization … for its ongoing efforts to make something good come out of unfortunate recent events. We have met with Mr. Dee and he has agreed to meet with and work closely with the LGBT community to bring our communities together with constructive, positive change.

"We also would like to publicly accept the sincere apology of DJ ARTFORM and recognize his support for the LGBT community and equality for all people. We do not wish to see him lose his job with the San Diego Padres and kindly ask the Padres to reinstate him. Everyone deserves a second chance."

And DJ ArtForm has also spoken out, and taken ownership for the mistake, and apologized, adding it was just a mistake and nothing discriminatory against gays:

“I believe we all deserve a second chance."

Here’s hoping the mistake doesn’t ruin jobs and relationships for all involved.