A Rant
This weeks big story on social media has been Colin Kaepernick, erstwhile quarterback of the San Francisco 49’ers.
Kaepernick has chosen to protest what he perceives as social injustice by refusing to stand for the national anthem before the start of games.
This, of course, has led to howls of outrage from offended patriots.
My concern is not over the validity of his protests, or the method of his protests, but over the cognitive dissonance that his protests have created.
There have been thousands of people inviting Kaepernick to love America or leave it.
How dare he disrespect the symbols that represent our great land?
How dare he imply that this is not the greatest nation on earth and has been since it’s inception?
Yes, we have problems, but this is still America, damn it!
However…
The same people inviting Kaepernick to leave America at the end of a pitchfork wearing newly heated tar and freshly plucked feathers are the same people who tell us every day, multiple times a day, that the country has gone straight to hell.
The President is an enemy, the elections are rigged, and we need to arm ourselves against the evil government because they’re out to get us.
Things are worse than they’ve ever been, the end is near, everything sucks, and maybe we should break up the Union and start our own countries.
America as we knew it is over and nothing but devastation awaits.
We’re so far gone that God is fixing to fry us.
These same folks think Colin Kaepernick needs to leave because he’s negative about America.
Pardon me if I’m confused here…
At this point my only question is this… if Southern Oregon secedes from the Union will we still be able to get NFL Sunday Ticket?
They only show the Niners games here…
I’ve been percolating some similar thoughts. Oh well, there goes a possible topic to write on for next week. Got to come up with something else now. 🙂
There is a cognitive dissonance for some where on one hand they will regularly champion America as being the greatest country ever and will defend it against any perceived slight or bad word, but on the other hand will regularly bemoan all that is wrong in the country.
And while I understand why Kaepernick is doing what he’s doing, I also understand the action he is taking comes across as ungrateful and disrespectful to many. I personally don’t care for it and wish he would act on his beliefs in what I think would be more productive fashions. With that said, with all the problems in this country, even the world, this is the one that we get so worked up about? A football player who won’t stand for the national anthem? Really?
One ESPN article suggested Colin be dealt to the Vikings (!) Michael. That will go over REAL WELL with Minnesotans who love their pro athletes to be carbon copies of Kirby Puckett (in his alive, better days)..nice, genial, not trouble-makers. I know this as I am born and raised Minnesotan.
Other than that I see your point about the two-faced reaction from the hard-right.
KevinH,
This might be the first and last time anyone cares what a back up quarterback thinks… 🙂
Dan,
He doesn’t fit our system or our salary cap… or our coach.
For these things I’m grateful. 🙂
Hey, when Tim Tebow was in camp for the Eagles last year as the back-up back-up back-up quarterback, everyone cared what he thought. 🙂
And now they might care just as much about an over-aged low-level minor league baseball player. 🙂
Tebow is a phenomenon that I can’t explain…
Isn’t that cognitive dissonance the very reason that a slogan like “make America great again” can work? It allows us to think of ourselves highly and have an excuse outside of ourselves for why our reality doesn’t live up to our expectations.
“America is the greatest country in the world, and people would see that if there were less people like you in it.”
Dallas,
Well said…
Yes, well said Dallas.
Dallas…gold! That is pretty much what they (Trump et al) are sayin’.
Man, do I ever agree with your rant, Michael. I was talking to an evangelical pastor the other day who has absolutely nothing good to say about America. He hates every member of the government, believes every conspiracy theory, hates paying taxes, hates the schools, hates everything. He himself is a rather lazy person but no matter: Everything about the country except the flag, the anthem, and the pledge are rotten to the core. Does he notice that the very symbols he idolizes symbolize the right not to stand for the national anthem? Gives people the same right not to stand as it gives them the right to picket an abortion clinic?
I always tell him (and people like him) that God loves a heart of gratitude and maybe if he was more thankful for the good things God has given him (for he is rich, compared to the rest of the world) things would look a whole lot better.
He believes the US government masterminded 9/11, for example. If you think our government is capable of that (and for what purpose?) and can keep it a secret (except for his insider websites) then he really does hate our country, even if he does stand ramrod straight for the National Anthem and its bombs bursting in air.
Back when America was “great,” a person like Trump would never have gotten the nomination.
As one who hates political correctness and politeness I take my hat off to Kaepernick. As an old burned out war protester – I too raise my black gloved hand and say right on.
I love doing things and seeing others who do things just to piss people off.
Xenia,
Thank you…very much.
I think you did an excellent job of filling out my argument.
I think many of you will appreciate my second favorite blogger’s take on the matter: http://www.stonekettle.com/2016/09/respect-colin-kaepernick-extended-cut.html Thank you Michael, for again boldly going places many of your peers in Christian blogdom do not tread.
Such a classic example of media slaughter and pushed turmoil…..which is possibly redirecting our minds from something more significant, but being deliberately covered.
I will say that I was offended at first…. and thought his momma didn’t teach him respect (his White adoptive momma. He is half White, half Black, like our President)….
I so agree with Kevin H that there are more productive ways to express opinions. Meh.
To me know, it sorta falls in to the “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” category. The angst isn’t worth the wasted energy.
I read somewhere that the hallowed Jackie Robinson also did not stand for the Anthem for the same reason, long ago…. My Black friends think the anger towards Kaepernick is classic White privilege.
There’s lots right in this county, and some messed up stuff too. So what else is new.
I’m an old war protesting hippie, but the Pledge and Anthem make me cry now…. and we fly Old Glory on our house every day. I’m thankful to live in America and go out of my way to thank any military folk I see around town.
On Sunday, the 3rd of July, one of the older worship leaders at our little church (Calvary Chapel Portland) played and sang several classic patriotic songs…God Bless America, Oh Beautiful, My Country Tis of Thee, etc…. VERY touching. I recently sang those songs to my grands who are in elementary school. They know and sing the Anthem and say the Pledge daily at their public school, but had never heard the other songs .
I had their rapt attention, tho I could barely sing due to tears.
I’m more offended by the socks than his refusal to stand for the National Anthem. His statement about cops getting paid leave for killing innocent people also bothers me. I have 2 sons-in-laws who are cops. Kaepernick used a broad brush in his reference to cops. Perhaps he should go on a ride-a-long, as I have, and see the types of people cops deal ith on a daily basis. There are bad cops, but putting my sons-in-law in the same light pisses me off!
I hope the 49ers cut him, and he gets picked up by New England.
we salute the flag because of what it stands for and for all those who’ve died in the attempt to keep it flying – especially the blood that stains our soil from the Civil War…
that does not mean that one cannot protest, but i look at disrespecting that flag very similarly to that bunch in Kansas that show up at funerals to raise their protests
take to the streets, put up a flag pole in your front yard and fly the flag upside down, if you wish – buy TV time and protest there for a couple minutes… better still, take some of your millions to supply more scholarships and mentoring for fatherless kids who just don’t get what life can be for them…
the football game displays just don’t impress me as anything, but egotistic and cowardly whimpers – wrong time and wrong place
just sayin 🙂
p.s. Jackie Robinson was a brave man and had good reason to make his statement at that time in our history
the problem we’re trying to resolve now is much more symbiotic and resolvable with rationality on all sides … two of my heroes today are Sheriff Clarke and Chief of Police David Brown… but guys like Kaepernic seem like silly dilettantes to me… dunno, tho, do i?… as they say, now it’s a whole new ballgame
I stated this elsewhere, but thought I’d state here as well…
I refused to stand during Vietnam, as I and my classmates were being sent off to kill and be killed in an undeclared war. I will support anyone who refuses to stand and I stand with them in not standing.
Understand?
#ColinKaepernick
I don’t see any more confusion that a group of people who follow a religion and talk about unity and love and brotherhood, but turn around and bash those brothers for doing church different or having differing views. It seems about the same to me.
A person can love what their country stands for and what it should be and has been, but see the destruction from within that is happening that could lead to collapse, if left to continue on with the current momentum.
Seeing someone fundamentally change something you believe in, while others are not even aware that it is happening (in government or religion or anything) is not being alarmist or a conspiracy nut, it is having your eyes open and seeing the truth around you.
Personally I’m sick of seeing his picture an hearing his name, and all this publicity that he is getting is just playing into his ego. I’d never heard of him before and hope to stop hearing about him soon. There are way more important things going on in the world than this spoiled brat and his political views.
I will always stand.
And, I will stand for his right not to stand.
And, I will stand for the right of those who don’t like his not standing to say they don’t like it.
https://kurtstaeuble.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/on-free-speech/
I wrote this post in regard to a free speech issue that’s taking place in our community, specifically radical pro-lifers who are demonstrating outside pro life churches.
He also announced today that he has donated a million bucks to put his money where his mouth is.
Otherwise, I’m with London @ 22…
One last comment before the skate park…whatever it is that we want to communicate,we have to speak in such a way that other people will listen if we’re truly invested in change.
That is the lost skill of this age…
Good article, PH…
For me it’s a workplace environment, all this talk about the right to protest…sure, but on your employer’s dime? Let’s all try this at work & see how far we get before something happens. Not saying he can’t or that it’s not for a solid cause, it’s just my interpretation is that this is something you do on your own time.
reading all comments on this post and thinking….
#27 – that is a very valid point IMHO
another thing strikes me that has changed over time… the Stars and Stripes at one time didn’t represent the Federal Government to most of us… instead of burning our flag waaaay back when, perhaps we would have threatened to burn down a government building or something 🙂 i seem to remember hearing of a time when folk would literally tar and feather an erring politician – then transport him out of town straddling a rail… old wives tale? mebbe – dunno
a quote: “shoot if you must this old grey head, but spare your country’s flag, she said”
as i read here today, it seems to me the flag today has come to mean something quite different to the public – does the government own it? as it seems to think that it owns us? sad
I’ll admit I have done my share of musing over my own protest of America. I have not felt the same about this country for a couple years. I don’t care if Kap sits but I do hope he sits all season for the whole game. He is the inevitable outcome of running QBs in the NFL. But I waxed about that a couple years ago. Anyway he will soon be out of the league but quite prosperous. We will see if he has a voice. Probably just a leaf in the wind.
The man is in his own process of being radicalized. I have not heard anyone raise this point. I am not suggesting the worst implications of that but I am saying we are watching the evolution of an angry man into who knows what.
I have similar impulses but a deep anchor to prevent the worst possible outcomes. I think.
BD,
You gave me words…my deepest concern is that we’re all in the process of being radicalized…
Most of all I am just sick of it and sick of the polarizing rhetoric it foments. I turn off every media outlet that raises this issue and I will tune out of this now.
More to Michael’s original point. Like Doc Holiday in Tombstone “My hypocrisy knows no bounds.”
Kap’s protest is just different in style not substance. I am just mad that his gets airtime and mine goes unheard.
Seriously so sick of this crap. How the heck is he oppressed or any other major athelete. Get real they have more money then most of the communities I have ever lived in. As far as what he is supposedly protesting go read the facts about who is oppressing who. Its their so called black leaders. Also who is killing who….. mostly black on black crime. If they care about oppression take some of the gobs of money they make playing stupid sports and help they millions of people in slavery today ie. Human trafficking. Problem is they don’t really care they just think they are being sharp. I wish the NFL would put there foot down and tell him if you want to protest do it on your own time. Not while you are working. As a business you have a right to set rules and regulations and if an employee doesn’t like them they don’t have to work there. No one is forcing him to work in The NFL.The problem is we live in a society run by political correctness and lies and revisionist history . most people today are spineless sniveling cry babies. Why doesn’t he go protest the gang members killing innocent people like children caught in the cross fire. Or open up his home to foster all the fatherless kids in 3rd world like neighborhoods here in America. Oh wait bad idea we don’t need anymore radicalized angry men running around already have enough of those. Do you realize these people screaming the loudest are millionaires and some multi millionaires and you just all drink the kool aid. I will always back his right to expression but the issue is not his right to expression it’s where he is doing it. I gurantee you if it was an anti baby killer trying to protest or a white male especially protesting the killing and viscious rape of his child by a black person or illegal they wouldn’t be allowed. The world is upside down. Quit watching the propaganda on the t.v. and go into your own neighborhoods and see for yourself what’s really going on without being spoonfed a bunch if b.s. There is plenty of misery going around for all people and they all aren’t just black…save all your stupid hate comments I’m sure I’ve heard them all
Regarding #11….
Past US Presidents such as Andrew Jackson were not incrdible moral examples.
#10
“He believes the US government masterminded 9/11, for example. If you think our government is capable of that (and for what purpose?) and can keep it a secret (except for his insider websites)…”
Well it wasn’t the first time they kept a big secret if the government was indeed behind 9/11.
The development of the atomic bomb is a good case in point you know.
http://www.atomicheritage.org/history/security-and-secrecy
It wasn’t until they dropped the bomb that the public even knew such a thing even existed they successfully kept it so secret.
News of the detonation of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 stunned the world.
Never before had a weapon of such destructive proportions been used upon an enemy population with such devastating effect.
The idea that a single, nuclear bomb could put an end to the greatest conflict the world has ever known ushered in a new era of modern warfare and completely changed the course of history forever.
So you see anything is possible to keep secret if you work at it hard enough…
Just saying.
Hillary Clinton could cover 9/11 all by herself. It is in her deleted emails that she didn’t know were marked C for confidential. She thought it was option C as in neither A nor B. Like Monica’s oral exam of her husband it was a vast right wing conspiracy. Yikes…
I’ve read a few times now Kap has a Muslim girlfriend and he has converted to the Muslim faith.
True or not, if this hits the mainstream media this is really going to escalate and it won’t be pretty.
Hillary’s gonna crush Donald’s gonads in just a couple of months. Stay tuned.
I am a 59 y/o military veteran who served 6 years (1977-1983) on active duty. My father served 20 years 1947-1967, uncle is a veteran of WWII including a horrific night on Okinawa. One grandfather is a Navy veteran of WWI and WWII (less than half the men he sailed with survived the second world war–battleship veteran). Great-grandfather fought with Pennsylvania Volunteers during Civil War (he did not have children until he was in his 50’s, hence the short generational span though many years between him and my generation). I did not serve in combat, but knew, and know, many who did, from WWII thru the present.
I took an oath to defend the constitution of the USA; there is no expiration date on that oath, so I consider myself still bound. I became a Christian shortly before entering the military; the most authentic Christian interaction I have had through the years was while I was on active duty. The reason for this, I think, is the understanding that Christians in the military have that they are, in a very true sense, strangers in a strange land. Learning to live as a stranger, a sojourner, if you will in that context has informed how I walk out my faith ever since. I learned to interact and find value with those of very different personal values and belief systems while there.
I am not a fan of flags or other national symbols in church. Nationalism is antithetical to kingdom citizenship–my participation, love of, and loyalty to the kingdom are on a much different plane than my national citizenship. Having lived for several years in the orient, and several years in Europe, I appreciate America. I appreciate what has differentiated us from those countries in terms of personal liberty. Citizens in those countries have what I would call personal license but less personal liberty. I think our written constitution the best document produced as a governing document by flawed men; I do not think our government, for several generations, has been a constitutionally driven system. I do not think of the government and how it chooses to enforce laws and mandates when I see the flag. The flag does not symbolize government for me, so in that sense what Kap did has little meaning to me. If he wants to wave prominently his middle finger at the government, I will not be moved in any way.
Symbols are important, however; in church when the flag covers a casket, I am at total peace with that. The flag is important to me in that context–it is what we as a nation, when we honor veterans, choose to bury them under. Sporting events that feature the national anthem and honor being rendered to the flag, is one of the few times we remember and honor the women and men who have served sacrificially for this country–and perhaps, more importantly, their families. Kap was selfish to draw attention to himself during a time when honor and respect is rendered to those who have sacrificed using the flag as the symbol for that sacrifice. I was at the funeral for a young Marine in 2008, the son of my best friends from my military days, who was killed in Anbar Province, Iraq. It was rumored that the Westboro Baptist folks would be there protesting–their right to do so, but again, an act of profound selfishness. We would all be better to respect the rights of those to whom those symbols are important, rather than denigrating that symbol to draw attention to ourselves.
I do not think there is a unique American identity anymore; (if there ever was, beyond popular culture). It is interesting that even in our politics, it is not enough for us to win our argument, we must humiliate and denigrate those who disagree with us. I make a personal choice to engage in conversation those who disagree with me–conversation is a way of affirming value. To denigrate symbols that are important to others is a conversation-ender; no good will come from it. If I could give Kap advice, it would be to try to engage those he disagrees with in conversation; tell them his story and listen closely to their stories. It would be interesting to see what is possible if we would speak to each other rather than shouting at each other.
Rick,
That was solid gold.
Thank you!
I don’t know what Colin does with his money and free time, but if he was really interested in changing things I would think investing in the lives of young black men would be a better example than protesting a symbol of what is good. But as usual, liberals prefer symbolic solutions to substantive ones.
He just donated a million to do just that.
Do “liberals” always prefer symbolic solutions?
Can we define what a liberal is and what a conservative is and do they always do and think the same things?
Who did he donate that to?
No not always. I’m guilty of making a generalization. #BLM is an example… it’s not substantive, it’s just a rant. It’s like the hollywood and political elites jumping on board with global warming but being driven around in SUV’s and private jets.
The Black Lives Matter Movement is not just a rant. If you dig deeper into the movement than the mainstream media headlines you will discover that the organization, led predominantly by women BTW, is involved in much more than rally’s and protest marches. They are hard at work in their communities trying to educate young people how to stay safe during encounters with law enforcement, participating in community meetings to help protect all people- the disabled, homeless, as well as people of color from abusive practices in the judicial system, fundraising for legal and medical expenses for families who have experienced a wide variety of tragedies linked to violence and racism in their local communities just to list a few. They are committed to non-violent, peaceful direct action. I could not be a supporter if I hadn’t done the research. I’m particularly impressed with the local chapter here in Portland and their work with other community leaders and the Department of Justice in working to bring some long overdue reforms to this areas justice system. They are not anti- police!! Only anti- corrupt and abusive policing.
BLM is supported by a majority of white adults (18-30), not to mention Asians, Hispanics, and Blacks.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AP_POLL_YOUNG_AMERICANS_BLACK_LIVES_MATTER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-09-05-15-19-30