In a long New Yorker magazine article, President Obama has said that NFL football players are aware of the risks involved with their sport as it related to concussions and possible brain damage.
Obama said in the article that he would not allow his own son to play professional football.
Obama said the players know what they are doing and the risk that goes along with it, as it is no longer a secret. Obama compared it to the way he feels about people who smoke.
The president said there is no doubt some folks just dislike him because they still do not like that there is a black president. The other side of the coin, said Obama, is there are black people and possibly some white people who really like him and support him just because he is a black President.
He argues that the preference of conservatives for policies to be made by the state government cannot be separated from the history of states’ right and the existence of slavery in the years prior to the Civil War and the racial prejudice that has gone on since then.
He urged a move away from that sort of thought. Obama also spoke about making sure that all people had healthcare including the poor people in Mississippi and not only those in Massachusetts.
The President told his interviewer that he was also troubled that poor kids are locked up when caught smoking pot, but middle class kids do not.
In addition, Hispanic and African-American children are more apt to be poor and less likely to have access to the resources that help support them to avoid unnecessary harsh penalties.
However, he did say the movement to legalize marijuana brings about some difficult issues. If marijuana were to become completely legal, said the president, then someone will come up with a new cocaine they can show that is no more harmful than a glass of vodka.
If someone were to say, they have a very calibrated meth that will not kill you or ruin your teeth, are we ready for that, said the President.
