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I watched a lot of football Sunday just to take my mind off the inhospitable planet we find ourselves on. Here in Seattle, we spent the weekend in the land of the Orange Sun and woke up to an aromatic haze that pushed the afternoon temperatures about 20 degrees lower than they would have been.

I got the message: Mother Earth is saying COVID was just the beginning. She is now going to execute her battle plan for climate change, and this is how she lowers the temperature. We’re just the collateral damage.

So, I needed a little glimmer of hope and football provided it – but not just the game. I happy to see that the NFL had figured out a way to accommodate a peaceful protest. At all of yesterday’s games, players were free to do what got Colin Kaepernick in so much trouble.

At the Seahawks-Falcons game, , the Falcons wore practice shirts with a quote from John Lewis about the importance of voting. After the kickoff, both teams took a knee, and thanks to COVID, they weren’t subject to the judgment of the crowd.

The fake crowd run by the sound effects guy was perfectly OK with a peaceful protest. I wonder if the day will come when a real crowd can politely accept that the people about to entertain them also sometimes feel that they’re on an inhospitable planet.

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