Colin Kaepernick’s Protest

American football player Colin Kaepernick recently refused to stand for the National Anthem. He says he did it because he refuses to stand for the Anthem when people of color are being beaten and kill and those who do it (police) are given paid leave. Fans are highly polarized over Kaepernick’s actions – either greatly supporting him or hating him for it. Some going so far as to burn jerseys with his number on them and call for him to be shipped to the Middle East. Personally, I fall in the latter category – I think he’s a disgrace.

Kaepernick is lucky enough to live in a nation where he is a free man. Not just a free man but a man who makes a huge amount of money for playing a game once a week for a few hours. There are few other countries in the world where he could live the kind of life he lives and do what he does. And he is ungrateful for it. As far as I’m concerned – he should be sitting on the bench for the rest of the year at most. I’d prefer to see him kicked out of football for setting a bad example.

Kaepernick’s little temper tantrum shouldn’t be condoned but the NFL but they are, saying players have the right to express themselves. These sports players make a huge amount of money and should be held to the highest standards of behavior. In other countries, if an athlete disrespected a national anthem like that, they’d suddenly ‘disappear’. And Kaepernick thinks he has problems living in America? If he wants to change things – why doesn’t he leave his multi million dollar salary in the NFL and go enroll in a police academy? Let’s see him work for $30,000 a year and do a better job than current police are doing. If he thinks so much is wrong – I want to see him become part of the solution and not just throw a public temper tantrum over it.