Print 
PDF
San Francisco 49ers football team quarterback Colin Kaepernick no longer stands up when our National Anthem is played at the start of the game.
He says, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color."
This from a bi-racial man who has put $112 million in his pocket playing professional football in, yes, this "oppressive" country called America.
People who have known him say he has changed dramatically.
But why?
Is it because he has embraced the "Black Lives Matter" movement?
Or is it a religious matter?
Bryan Fischer, with American Family Association, published an article yesterday saying that Kaepernick is promising America that he is going to sit down during the National Anthem "until there is a significant change" in our country.
Why does anyone care that a San Francisco 49ers quarterback has decided he now hates America as he sees it?
The New York Times reported last year that 112 million people watched the Super Bowl, and surveys consistently find that about half of all Americans (between 49% and 54%) watch or closely follow professional football---the NFL.
Seattle's fans are called the "12th Man"---they are part of the team.
Half of America follows football. This story is important because half of America will also watch Kaepernick sitting down during the National Anthem.
And the media will highlight it.
Football also has the highest high school participation in America with 1,085,272 kids involved this year. Track and Field is 2nd, with Basketball 3rd.
America loves sports---especially football.
Fischer writes:
We can all stipulate that the U.S. has had a problematic past when it comes to race, beginning with its flatly unbiblical embrace of African slavery in 1619. (The kind of slavery practiced in the United States was a death penalty crime in the Bible, according to Exodus 21:16. If the Bible had been followed, slavery never would have gained the slightest foothold in America.)
But this is also a country which abolished slavery, Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, and has twice elected a black man to the highest office in the land. The reigning NFL MVP is a black man, as is the reigning NBA MVP, and America made Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods some of the richest athletes in history. In other words, America, while not perfect, is a nation to be proud of.
Kaepernick speaks as if these things never happened, as if we are still living in the antebellum South. Kaepernick himself is living proof that whatever the United States used to be, today it is a land of opportunity to people of any race who work hard and develop their talents.
Yesterday, Kaepernick talked repeatedly about "police brutality." This means one thing: the low-information media shares some of the blame for this mess. Again, we can stipulate that there have certainly been examples of police misconduct. But time and time again, we discover the media sensationalizes violent confrontations between cops and blacks, with the initial suspicion and blame being placed on law enforcement.
When the facts emerge, law enforcement, far more often than not, has been exonerated. But the media is not interested in the truth if it justifies police behavior – and so low-information consumers of news, like Kaepernick, never find out about it. Kaepernick is apparently unaware, for instance, that the "hands up, don't shoot" narrative in Ferguson, Missouri, never happened. It was all a lie.
Fischer says "this is a sad development"---that he personally has always been a fan of Kaepernick and has been pulling for him to make starting quarterback this year with the 49ers.
Late yesterday afternoon, Obama's White House weighed in on the Kaepernick matter, saying, "I certainly don't share the views that Mr. Kaepernick expressed...But we surely all acknowledge and even defend his right to express those views."
Allen West is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army, and a black man. He is more than a little upset.
West, who says, "If there's one thing I live for, it's football season..." also says, "The NFL issued a statement that said players are encouraged but not required to stand for the national anthem. Hmm, this is the same NFL that refused to allow the Dallas Cowboys to wear a helmet decal in honor of the fallen Dallas Police Officers gunned down on Thursday, July 7th."
He says the NFL did nothing when players from the St. Louise Rams displayed the false narrative symbol of "hands up ---don't shoot"---"which we know didn't happen."
West says a Scripture verse comes to his mind---"wisdom for Mr. Kaepernick: Proverbs 17:28, 'Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues'."
West says, "Or as the old folks down South would say, 'Best for a stupid person to keep their mouth shut and not open it and let everyone know they are'."
Allen West tells his own personal story in this article, it is very touching and informative. I strongly encourage you to take a moment and read it.
He says to Kaepernick: "You sir, may certainly have the right to sit on your 'fourth point of contact' when the National Anthem is played, but never forget, you live in a nation that has provided you the privilege to have that right."
West continues, "The American flag has a very touching meaning for those of us whom it will drape our coffin---as it did for my dad...and it will be for me."
"May you seek God's forgiveness and find humility because we the people are not going to forget what you did and said."
And speaking of God---
Some are wondering if Kaepernick's change of attitude and behavior has anything to do with his girlfriend.
The press will likely not report this either.
He has a Muslim girlfriend. Some close to him feel he has turned away from his Christian faith and embraced Islam. He has recently sent Ramadan greetings out on his social media accounts. Islam is virulently anti-American, as exemplified by the rhetoric and behavior of the Nation of Islam.
His actions seem to reflect that behavior.
It's entirely possible that Kaepernick's mind and heart has been poisoned by the dark message of Islam regarding the anti-police, anti-American message of "Black Lives Matter."
God help us.