A basketball player "waives" the flag in protest

LA Times ^ | Feb 23, 2003 | Mike Bresnahan

[ysoh]

Like the rest of her team, Toni Smith stands before the national anthem is played.

Then she does something different. She turns away from the U.S. flag in protest.

Smith has been doing it all season, whether at Manhattanville College home games or on the road. She said she is protesting because "the government's priorities are not on bettering the quality of life for all of its people, but rather on expanding its own power."

Recently, she has received a bitter, and vocal, reaction from fans at road games, including hundreds of flag-waving students Thursday at Mount St. Mary.

More than 500 people filled the tiny gym and jeered Smith at every opportunity. Smith was booed even when she was on the bench. As time ran out, the crowd sang "God Bless America."

It wasn't the only time Smith, a senior at the Division III school in Purchase, N.Y., has faced objections.

When Manhattanville played at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Feb. 11, more than 300 flag-waving midshipmen greeted Smith with chants of "U-S-A" and "Leave our country." The crowd was believed to be a record turnout for the Mariners, who are winless this season.

When Smith picked up two fouls in the first three minutes and was benched, the crowd chanted, "We want Toni," according to the New York Journal News.

After the Mount St. Mary game, Smith felt compelled to define her beliefs.

[ysoh]

what this person is doing, it leaves me speechless.

[ysoh]

i only read the LA times for the sports section, but look what i found in sports. oh yeah, the rest of the article is about other college basketball news that i "excerpted". the gist of the article is laid out here, so you don't need to sign up to the LA Times.

[goodnesswins]

Some women should never vote....she's one of them (and I'm a woman.) She would not be playing basketball if she were living in Iraq.

[HadEnough]

"who are winless this season"

She is obviously on the right team!

[PetroniDE]

It is the Mariners (the U.S. Marine) team that was winless. However, that team is winless only on the basketball court (undefeated in more important matters).

[UncleSamUSA]

As they used to say on Saturday Night Live:

"Toni, you ignorant slut."

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

It is the Mariners (the U.S. Marine) team that was winless.

"When Manhattanville played at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Feb. 11,"

U.S. Marine is not U.S. Merchant Marine academy. Apples and oranges.

[50sDad]

"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

"It will be a great day when your schools actually begin to teach critial thinking again, rather than crank out neuvo-hippies who spew the same slogans that were proven wrong forty years ago."

Seriously, I was nine the last time I heard this old chestnut....clearly she learned it from one of the Liberal fossils that we have granted tenure in our hopeless education system. You're right, Tori...much better that a million and a half MORE Iraqi's die under the iron boot of a madman dictator than a single innocent be harmed in an Evil American Attack Which is Only About OIL, Anyway." (tm)

[ysoh]

and the president of the college agrees with her. shall we tell him what we think about it?

president@mville.edu

[netmilsmom]

My lesbian/teacher/flaming liberal/sister sent the "bake sale" BS to me in a greeting card last week. She's a real hepcat, don't you think?

[mom-7]

I think that there's too much money being spent on education. Maybe if this stupid kid had to have a bake sale for her team, she might appreciate it more. When you get something for nothing--no appreciation. Besides if she doesn't like it here, the borders are open, so leave.

[Jakarta ex-pat]

Toni Smith isn't the problem.

The people who "make" Toni Smith are.

[txradioguy]

I'll take this silly girl's arguements seriously when she can name me ONE player from the Iraqi Women's Basketball Team.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Self-important twit. Maybe she'll grow out of it, but probably not.

[Happy2BMe]

"and the president of the college agrees with her. shall we tell him what we think about it?"

Yes! email them.

Recall just two months ago of the history professor who humiliated the Air Force Cadet and called American Servicemen everything but nice.

That guy had so many emails, the college had so many phone calls and bad publicity they came close to firing him and place him on admin leave.

I don't recall his name, but he *DID* have his own web page - it was a tribute to communism!

True story!

We need to jump on this.

The "Anti - - Anti-war" Wave. What Should It Be? What Should It Look Like?

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors; they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." Samuel Adams

[Happy2BMe]

"Favorite Quotes: "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything." "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

[chimera]

"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

Yes, I've seen this tired, old hackneyed bromide around on bumper stickers lately. Actually, they've got it backwards. Too much money has been wasted on failed educational programs leaving our military undermanned and underequipped. At least money spent on a good bomber ends up with a product that does what it is supposed to do. Scandal-plagued educational boondoogle programs have left the public education system in this country in a shambles, allowing ignorant and uneducated people out into the general public to spew their ignorance at every turn, like this twit.

[Consort]