Colin Kaepernick sits during National Anthem

[Tallguy88]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KTVU) - San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did not stand during the National Anthem at Friday night's preseason game.

Kaepernick spoke to NFL Media after the game saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color."

http://www.ktvu.com/news/196372466-story

 

[Ophiolite]

Reminiscent of the black power gesture at the Mexico City Olympics by Tommy Smith and John Carlos. That was extensively condemned at the time, but is now seen as in important symbol within the civil rights movement.

 

[zephyrWiccan]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KTVU) - San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did not stand during the National Anthem at Friday night's preseason game.

Kaepernick spoke to NFL Media after the game saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color."

http://www.ktvu.com/news/196372466-story

Good for him for standing up (or sitting down in this case?) for what he believes.

Frankly the idea that one must stand for the National Anthem or place your hand over your heart, or do the same for the Pledge, has always been rather disturbing to me. Smacks of nationalistic brainwashing of the sort seen in Mussolini's Italy, and various other dictatorships.

 

[Tallguy88]

Yep, he won't stand in honor of the country that has made him a millionaire based on nothing more than athletic ability.

But, he has that right. Mostly thanks to people like this marine who also didn't stand for the national anthem:

 

[SummerMadness]

Yep, he won't stand in honor of the country that has made him a millionaire based on nothing more than athletic ability.

But, he has that right. Mostly thanks to people like this marine who also didn't stand for the national anthem:

The country hasn't made him a millionaire, he made himself a millionaire. As a citizen, he has a right to protest the conditions and policies of this country, what is the point of the picture? As stated by @Ophiolite, he is making a political statement as was always intended by the Constitution, why attempt to foist an injured member of the military as if his protest is wrong?

 

[zephyrWiccan]

Yep, he won't stand in honor of the country that has made him a millionaire based on nothing more than athletic ability.

But, he has that right. Mostly thanks to people like this marine who also didn't stand for the national anthem:

That's sad that the Marine in the picture was injured while doing his job.

But this insistence that the military is all about protecting our rights and freedoms is just absurd.

http://truthvoice.com/2015/05/5-rea...se-to-say-we-owe-our-freedom-to-the-military/

 

[Job8]

Kaepernick spoke to NFL Media after the game saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.

He should be simply fired.

 

[zephyrWiccan]

He should be simply fired.

Why? Does his contract say he must slavishly stand at attention to nationalistic displays at football games?

 

[Job8]

But this insistence that the military is all about protecting our rights and freedoms is just absurd.

Why it it absurd? The military is there to protect and defend. What is absurd is saying that blacks are oppressed in America. If he feels so oppressed, he should migrate to Saudi Arabia or Iran.

 

[Tallguy88]

The country hasn't made him a millionaire, he made himself a millionaire. As a citizen, he has a right to protest the conditions and policies of this country, what is the point of the picture? As stated by @Ophiolite, he is making a political statement as was always intended by the Constitution, why attempt to foist an injured member of the military as if his protest is wrong?

To paraphrase President Obama "he didn't make that". He only did so because of the country in which he lives. He wouldn't have been a millionaire if he were born in France, or Oman, or Niger, or China. Only in America, and yet he won't even stand for the national anthem, which is spitting g in the face of veterans like the injured marine who stood as best he could during the anthem.

It's his right to not stand. It's my right to ridicule him for it.

 

[Tallguy88]

He should be simply fired.

He's a has-been. He was almost traded and won't likely last more than a season or two more anyway.

 

[zephyrWiccan]

Why it it absurd? The military is there to protect and defend. What is absurd is saying that blacks are oppressed in America. If he feels so oppressed, he should migrate to Saudi Arabia or Iran.

The soldier in your picture wasn't injured defending our freedom. He was injured on one of our recent power plays in other countries, where the lives, psyches, and bodies of many such soldiers were sacrificed to the military industrial complex.

 

[Job8]

Why? Does his contract say he must slavishly stand at attention to nationalistic displays at football games?

The National Anthem is not merely a nationalistic display. If he considers himself a citizen, he must either show respect for the country's National Anthem, or renounce his citizenship. It is obvious he has no loyalty to the USA, so he might eventually turn out to be an enemy of the people. We don't even know if he has already been subverted.

 

[zephyrWiccan]

The National Anthem is not merely a nationalistic display.

Sorry but yeah, that's exatly what it is.

If he considers himself a citizen, he must either show respect for the country's National Anthem, or renounce his citizenship. It is obvious he has no loyalty to the USA, so he might eventually turn out to be an enemy of the people. We don't even know if he has already been subverted.

No, he musn't. We're not in Nazi Germany or the USSR, at least not yet (though it seems you'd enjoy living in such a place).

 

[redleghunter]

That's sad that the Marine in the picture was injured while doing his job.

But this insistence that the military is all about protecting our rights and freedoms is just absurd.

http://truthvoice.com/2015/05/5-rea...se-to-say-we-owe-our-freedom-to-the-military/

The oath every officer and enlisted service member takes is to support and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic.

Now if your point is not every US war or conflict involved defending our Constitutional rights, then that matter should be taken up with every person who occupied the WH and Capitol Hill.

 

[redleghunter]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KTVU) - San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did not stand during the National Anthem at Friday night's preseason game.

Kaepernick spoke to NFL Media after the game saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color."

http://www.ktvu.com/news/196372466-story

He exercised his Constitutional 1st Amendment rights.

He did so without flipping the bird, burning the flag and interrupting everyone else exercising their free speech.

For argument sake? The flag flying over that stadium was actually the flag flown by Union army units (minus a few stars) who defeated the slave states.

 

[SummerMadness]

The National Anthem is not merely a nationalistic display. If he considers himself a citizen, he must either show respect for the country's National Anthem, or renounce his citizenship. It is obvious he has no loyalty to the USA, so he might eventually turn out to be an enemy of the people. We don't even know if he has already been subverted.

Yeah! Just like those people saying, "Make America Great Again," they are showing disrespect to this already great country!

 

[Job8]

No, he musn't. We're not in Nazi Germany or the USSR, at least not yet (though it seems you'd enjoy living in such a place).

No. Actually the enemies of the United States flourish because of the freedoms they have. But their primary objective is to destroy those freedoms. Even responsible blacks recognize that Black Lives Matter is essentially subversion of law and order. And when there is no law and order, what you have is anarchy. A person who sincerely believes that the USA is oppressive should migrate to North Korea, Iran, or Saudi Arabia, and see how far he gets with his rants. To disrespect the flag or the National Anthem is to display enmity to the country to which they belong (applicable to any country).

 

[zephyrWiccan]

The oath every officer and enlisted service member takes is to support and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic.

Now if your point is not every US war or conflict involved defending our Constitutional rights, then that matter should be taken up with every person who occupied the WH and Capitol Hill.

Taking an oath to do something should events come about to necessitate it, and actually doing that something in your job while you're working said job, are two very different things.

The last time one could even reasonably argue that soldiers have fought to defend our rights was WWII, and even then one could argue against it (Japan had no ability to invade and take us over, all they could do was a surprise attack on our naval forces and then a war of attrition in islands in the middle of the Pacific; Germany didn't even have the capability of crossing the English Channel with enough force to take over England, they sure as heck weren't going to be able to cross the Atlantic and take us over and subvert our rights, and until they were forced by treaty obligations in our attack on Japan, they were interested pretty much entirely on their campaign into the USSR - and then of course there's the fact that FDR essentially set up policies that pretty much dared and near-openly demanded Japan attack us)

 

[Job8]

Yeah! Just like those people saying, "Make America Great Again," they are showing disrespect to this already great country!

What was ONCE already great but has become the laughingstock of the world under Obama. Iran now feels free to harass American ships while enjoying 1.7 billion dollars out of America's treasury to support more Jihadists against the Great Satan. The Muslim world is rolling on the floor laughing.