Actually, we died for his right TO SIT or stand...

I saw that on FB this morning and was going to post it here.

Thanks for sharing.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Samuel Johnson. People have actually forgotten what true patriotism is.

Until the government forces him to stand it isn't an issue of rights.

First Amendment says Government cannot stop your freedom of speech. Doesn't say others aren't allowed to react to it.

Patriotism is a wonderfully faith-based refuge.

When San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to sit down during the national anthem on Aug. 26 to protest inequality and police brutality, detractors immediately began to call him entitled. How could a millionaire athlete possibly criticize the United States when he's been given so much?

And how, they said, would veterans feel about a man desecrating a symbol they've fought to protect? Well, the veterans have spoken -- at least on Twitter -- and they don't seem particularly upset about it.


The #VeteransForKaepernick hashtag gained steam on Tuesday, with several former servicemen and servicewomen voicing their support for the quarterback's protest.

MORE: OregonLive.com

Unfortunately our country is the most rascist in history. Our founding fathers were slaveholders. Our White House and Capitol building were built with slave labor. Black men are 10 times more likely to be imprisoned as white men. Our country still refuses to give reparations to blacks for 300 years of forced unpaid labor and discrimination. We force blacks to live in ghettos, we send their children to inferior schools and force them to drink poisoned water and eat unhealthy food. Our police kill black children with impunity almost on a daily basis.
Until we as a country take serious measures to right these wrongs, starting with reparations, no Blacks, football players or not should show any respect to any symbol of our rascist history.

Oh, and the rest of you screed is equally ridiculous...

I'm not even going to waste my time listing all the nations that have been more racist than America.

Here, let me help you out a bit:

You're serious...



I just...

I can't...



Wow...

Did you realize how stupid this post/thinking is?

Every teacup needs its storm, I guess.

Lost in the patriotic furor is the question of courtesy, by which one indulges rituals which make no sense to him because he doesn't want to offend those to whom the ritual matters. It is always for the individual to decide if his morality will permit him to participate in such rituals. I'd suggest that rising for a nation's anthem is a fairly passive act, much more so than, for example, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, which is a positive act. But Mr Kaepernick or any other might slice the onion differently. And as the gentlemen on the right of the cartoon so justly point out, that is exactly what they were fighting for.

-- Mal

Sometimes yes. But unfortunately, too often not.

... although I daresay there were a number who knew exactly who was being sold down what river.

-- Mal

perhaps not yet achieved, but a hope that the country they love would become better with their sacrifice.

His detractors have a right to their speech as well.

He is a douchebag, but what he says is absolutely right. PoC are treated differently by police than white people. People with a halfway functioning brain realize this.

This vet agrees.

so when you are in the military you MUST salute the American flag as well as stop and salute for the National Anthem when in uniform, etc.

Saying a civilian MUST show the same regards to the National Anthem or the flag is just a right-wing knee-jerk reaction to when they were brought up by some psycho father or parent.

"You will stand and put your hand over your heart when you hear that godly song!"

optional

The US hasn't been threatened militarily, for centuries. It's illogical to claim that the military defends our rights, when it is used primarily for aggression.

Tell it to all the people who died at Pearl Harbor.

nor was it a threat to freedom in the US.

If they thought they could, they would. ..duh

The US was not fighting Japan for freedom, but for control over that region of the world.

As usual, your posts are just plain silly.

This issue is about raising awareness of a larger societal problem. Kaepernick is using his fame to shine a light on something that needs the sanitation of daylight and close inspection. I view those criticizing his act of protest with suspicion and doubt their intentions far more than those of Kaepernick himself.

This is the flag burning debate warmed over and regurgitated. The right to protest the government is enshrined in the Bill of Rights for a reason - in the time of kings, dissent was a capital offense to many. The highest of American ideals is that of the secular state, a nation of men and women rule by laws, not by kings nor decree.

The First Amendment -- love it or leave it.

fail to understand that simple fact.

it was something I used to point out to the assholes whining about jane fonda.

Some guy didn't stand somewhere, when the National Anthem was played...and this is a big deal why?

"we died protecting your rights" is such rah rah militarism crap. in which war, precisely, were our rights under threat? 1812? thanks for your service, veterans of 1812.

it sure as fuck wasn't korea, Vietnam, Iraq 1, Afghanistan or Iraq 2.

the anthem has no more to do with the military than "in god we trust" on the money does.

Some folks will never grasp that truth, just like they will never get the true intent and context of the 2nd Amendment.

questioning his choice to do it.

That's amazing.