The Land of the Free

An interesting story is in the press this weekend.  Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, has hit the headlines by refusing to stand up for the national anthem before games.

I have no beef with Kaepernick.  He's heavily involved in charity work and he's always been a model citizen.

This move on his part is a bit puzzling to me, however.

He is protesting discrimation and mistreatment of minorities and what he refers to as 'institutional racism' in America.

He explains it thusly:

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.  To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

The odd thing about this to me is that this move on his part doesn't make me think about racism or discrimination.  It makes me think about America.

In this post, I am taking no position about those topics.  Not because I have no position, but because his actions don't make me think of them.

America is a country with its successes and failures.  It has wonderful, beautiful qualities, and it has warts.  Think of your child.  He's a beautiful, wonderful thing, but any honest parent knows there there are faults in each one of them.  That's because each child is a human, and humans, by definition, are flawed.

Countries also have both qualities.  It does no good to pretend otherwise.  If we pretend we are perfect, there would be no room for improvement.  If we pretend we are terrible, we lose our ability to display our greatness.

One way in which America outshines all others is our freedom.  We hold it dear, and we fight for it.

Kaepernick is free to sit during the national anthem.  He is free to call our country racist.  We all think that it's a wonderful thing that we all have the freedom to express ourselves.

The problem that I have with his stance is this: when I see him sitting, I only think about the fact that I live in a country where this sort of protest is allowed.

I'm not thinking about racism at all.  I'm thinking of a young man, adopted by white parents, a pillar of his community, and an amazing athelete who is allowed to express himself freely by protesting the very institution which allows him to express his God-given freedom.

Whether the message is right or wrong, the method of delivery seems out of place.

I wonder if he's thought about how his method would have worked out in fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union.  Or in modern day China, Iran, or Afghanistan.

I do hope that we can all celebrate the greatness of the freedom that we find here in America.

In spite of our warts.

TheCurmudgeon