Over the last few days, the country has been hearing a lot about a man named Colin Kaepernick. Mr. Kaepernick is a quarterback for the professional football team the San Francisco 49ers. Knowing this you might assume that he did something either amazingly good or amazingly bad on the football field to warrant such widespread press. But you would be wrong. You see, Mr. Kaepernick fancies himself a social justice warrior. He is seemingly outraged at the treatment of "black America" by the United States government in specific and the rest of America in general. Seeing as he is such a big strong manly man, he is just not the type of guy that could take injustices sitting down. Oh wait! That is exactly what he did. The way Mr. Kaepernick decided to express his deep and righteous outrage was by refusing to stand during our/his nation's national anthem. Sigh.
Okay, my first question is what exactly has our/his nation done to blacks that has him all worked up into such a tizzy? The go to grievance tends to have something to do with slavery. But slavery was abolished almost one hundred and forty years ago. And at great personal cost to many freedom loving, non-slave-owning white Americans. So, that can't be it. How about the symptomatic oppression that keeps black people aways from quality education and well-paying jobs? But affirmative action actually makes it possible for minorities to get into good schools, even if they have lower grades and test scores than their white peers. He himself is surrounded on a daily basis by black men who all went to college and are now paid millions of dollars to play, what is for most people, a weekend game for children. That hardly seems wildly oppressive. Okay, okay. But what about young black people who are being killed en mass by crazed, racist police? Well, the truth is the blacks commit over 50% of all violent crime while making up only around 13% of the population. There are also piles of evidence that most police shootings are caused by the actions of the victim. Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Korryn Gaines, Tamir Rice, etc all got themselves killed as a result of their own actions toward the police. The truth is that if you assault an officer, pull (or try to pull) a gun or knife on one, the chances are good you'll be shot. White or black. No one is forced to do those things. No one is forced to deal drugs, join gangs, rob and vandalize other people and their property. Those are choices made by each individual. And if you make them, don't be surprised when you are on the cops bad side. It's just common sense.
The sad truth is that Mr. Kaepernick is a young man with a chip on his shoulder. I'm not sure where he got it from. Maying the fact that he was abandoned at birth (by his black father) is part of it. But still, he was adopted by a loving (white) family and has been allowed to live an American dream that for most people is only a Monday night fantasy. America is not a perfect place by any stretch of the imagination. But our nation's flag is the representation of all that is good in her. It represents the values that we know are righteous, and the hopes and dreams of her people that one day those values will be fully realized. But most importantly, it takes the place of all those who have died defending those dreams. Defending a land where a young baby, who has been abandoned, can grow to live the dream that her defenders never got the chance too. They are in that flag and they should always be saluted. They should always be thanked. Mr. Kaepernick does not have to stand, that is one of the many freedoms bought for him by those he refuses to acknowledge. It is said that he will play at least one more game before his future with the 49ers is decided. It is my hope that before then he looks around himself, and while seeing all that is wrong, he also sees all that is right. That he will realize that even an imperfect union has its heroes and that we/he are the beneficiaries of their sacrifice. If he does that, I have no doubt that he will stand before his game and say a silent 'I'm sorry and thank you' to them. If I know the hearts of our heroes at all, I know they will be happy for forgive him. After all, they fought for freedom. And freedom means making mistakes and being able to come back from them. Kind of like in a football game. He is no stranger to being down in the scoring. The only question is, can he make a comeback? We shall be watching.
