Let me say right up front that I couldn’t care less what Colin Kaepernick thinks. I couldn’t care less what he does, what he believes, or who he promotes. For too long we have equated fame with wisdom. The fact that he has been successful at the highest levels of his chosen profession means nothing to me when evaluating his opinion.
The same goes for Barbara Streisand, George Clooney, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon and a host of not-mentioned celebrities. The fact that they have reached the top of their profession does not qualify them as experts on the greater issues of the day.
I’m not even sure that I want to “be like Mike” when it comes to how I live my life and the values upon which my life is anchored. I learned that lesson when my mother permitted me at age 8 to eat straight from the spinach can in the hopes that it would do for me what it always seemed to do for Popeye. (BTW…can you imagine in today’s culture giving a child’s cartoon star a nickname based on a physical deformity?) But I digress.
Celebrities have instant credibility with the masses because of what they do. I’m sorry, but the fact that Bono can carry a tune has nothing to do with his ability to speak the truth. Celebrities, for the most part, are admired for who what they can do and not for who they are. I bet Leo De-Crap-rio is a major dolt. He has to be to take some of the positions he takes. Those who look up to him admire his ability to act…to “be someone else” and have no idea who he really IS.
I bet he doesn’t even eat spinach from a can.
So the latest brouhaha about Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem is all a big waste of time to me. Once I heard what he had to say I understood completely why he did what he did. The dude is brainwashed. He has followed all of the BLM crap and has very little understanding of the real world. Does anybody out there remember how uninformed you were as a 26 year old? Heck, I voted for Teddy Kennedy in the 1976 primary. You are what you know and Kaepernick doesn’t know very much about what is really going on.
Unlike so many folks I see in press reports, Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem did not cause my blood pressure to go up one tick. The internet is full of people burning his jersey…calling him names…telling him to leave the country…full of media driven outrage. The media loved it as it played into their “discrimination” story line and their desire to show how “unfair” America is.
This may surprise you, but there is a part of me that agrees with the guy. I think it is good to see people stand up by sitting down. I wish more people would get teed off enough to protest something worthy. My bone with Kaepernick is not that he refused to stand for the Anthem, but that he was doing it for the wrong reason. I think there are a lot of reasons to stand up by sitting down. I wish more people would do it. I just believe the false narrative of Black Lives Matters is a bogus reason to throw away a career.
But here is where Pencilhead Paperneck made his mistake. What do you do when you are asked to “pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republican for which it stands” when the Republic no longer stands for what it was founded to represent? How do you honor the good and rebuke the bad in a country that has lost her way?
Kaepernick was right to stand up by sitting down. He simply was doing it for the wrong reasons.
Imagine this picture. What if Tim Tebow, when he was starting QB for the Denver Broncos, was seen sitting on the bench as the Stars and Stripes where hoisted over Mile High Stadium? Can you imagine the furor with which the media would descend upon this very public Christian man panting out questions as to why he refused to honor America?
What would have been the reaction of the national media and social media networks if Tebow had simply said:
“I love my country but I am ashamed of what she has become. I honor our veterans and all of those who daily do all that they can to make America a better place for everyone. We are a nation where millions fight to make life better for others and I salute and honor their selfless sacrifice.
I love the American soldiers and appreciate their willingness to lay down their lives for their friends. I honor their service and their willingness to keep us safe. But I hate the military complex and the idea that America is the policeman of the world. I don’t know how to separate the two…I stand up for the soldiers but sit down for the pentagon war machine.
But our nation is no longer faithful to her creed as the land of the free. Today our government sanctions the slaughter of tiny pre-born Americans. We imprison our children in Godless public schools, and steal the hard-earned wages of individual Americans through an unjust and unrighteous system of taxation.
We have become a nation where justice is no longer blind and the powerful and politically connected play by a separate set of rules. We burden the next generation with mountains of debt that they will never be able to repay, and we fail to honor Almighty God by rejecting His standards and precepts calling legal what He has already determined to be unlawful.”
I love my country but I disagree with my government. When I stand up for the Anthem I do it to honor the great Americans all across the nation. But I sit down for the likes of Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, IRS, Federal Reserve, Department of Education, and US Supreme Court. When the Anthem plays I am not sure how I can show my disapproval while honoring the sacrifice of those who are deserving of honor.
I believe in standing up by sitting down. Colin Kaepernick’s mistake was sitting down for the wrong reasons. Perhaps we should ask ourselves why we so blindly stand and honor a Godless, out of control, American government.
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© 2016 Dave Daubenmire – All Rights Reserved
