As An American, I Support Colin Kaepernick

The biggest news story to come out of this week was without a doubt Colin Kaepernick sitting during the national anthem. However, It’s not the biggest because it is the most important or it affects the most people. In fact, it really affects no one and it’s not really important at all, other than being needlessly divisive.

This was a story that I kept thinking would simply go away, after all, there isn't really anything to it. But the more it stayed around the more it really started to bug me.

Kaepernick is just a guy who gets paid a lot to play a game. He’s not a national hero and he shouldn’t be considered a role model, after all, he is just a quarterback who made a personal decision. That’s okay, that is his right, same as any American.

What I don’t get is how anyone can defend the national anthem while condemning his choice as an American. It is the worst kind of hypocrisy that, I’m sorry to say, is all too common in conservative media outlets. This site too has been guilty of it.

Every time there was a riot that black people were involved in, the media and their surrogates would go on and on about the need for peaceful protests. Yet, now when a moderately famous black man does that, the same group explodes on him. In all honestly, how is a black man supposed to win with that system?

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This wasn’t even the first time that Colin Kaepernick had sat down during the national anthem, it is just the first time that the media really noticed it. You see the mainstream media is who made this into a big deal, not him and I guarantee he wishes it wasn’t.

Now, before you counter with all the liberals who were so offended when Tim Tebow prayed during a game, you’re right and clearly, that’s not okay either. We need to stop criticizing people when they make a choice that only affects them. It’s their personal liberty and a big pillar of conservatism.

Would you really have it any other way? Do we want to live in a society that forces its citizens to be patriotic? Were the founding fathers wrong to oppose the British? After all, what is the point of patriotism if it is just an empty gesture to a song?

I love this country, but not because it's expected of me. I love it because I am free and have the right to voice my opinion.

So in the end, I support Colin Kaepernick, not in his actions, but in his absolute and unquestionable right to do what he did. His life, his choices, and his perspective are not for me to judge. I may not agree with what he did, but I will defend his actions as the right of any free thinking American.

So let me ask you this, If you really think that Colin Kaepernick insulted the United States and therefore you by saying America isn’t as great as it could be, then what do you say about Donald Trump who has been saying that for well over a year now?

As always, exercise your freedoms and let me know what you think,