Kap

There I was, in my dark place of solitude like Billie Holiday sings in her song doing my fantasy football research, when I got caught up in a discussion on my TCN. TCN is my personal acronym for Tribal Communication Network. These are simply communications from my boyz that fly around my superhighway (either by text or e-mail) about, well, possibly anything.




This particular topic was about 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand during the playing of our country's national anthem. I didn't really get involved in the conversation directly in part because we don't use Messenger for direct conversation so I generally don't know who said what when, but also (like I said) I was researching for three fantasy football drafts that I have on the same day. Regular readers of my blog know what that means for me.




But then, I got a direct shout-out from one of our more respected members of my crew. It was even more impactful with me because we have a kinship on a career related level. Long story short, when he asked me directly for my opinion, I have to come out of my cave.




When I first heard of this, I was kind of thrown off. After all, according to news accounts, he has not stood for any of the preseason games this season. A very quick cursory review of his Twitter feed indicates a somewhat sincere sensitivity toward "people of color". In fact, he has a personal affection to a organization called Camp Taylor, a camp for children with heart disease.



When you talk about symbols that are representative of our entire nation, they mean so many different things to so many different people. For example, to our military, it is a very important symbol to them, including my boyz that have served. As one of them said, "...you have to give respect to get respect.' This is also sensitive to me because I have two brothers who served. For other various movements, who I will not get into, the flag means things both positive and negative.




There are various other (and more effective) ways that Kaepernick could address his concerns. He could always join the thousands of organizations that have a much louder voice. He even could create his own organization to exactly address his concerns. He could work in conjunction with people who he thinks could help him towards his vision.




I just think that it is pretty ironic that Kaepernick is being called out for simply exercising his rights that are actually offending some people that give him the opportunity to exercise that same right. You can bet that he wouldn't be able to do the same thing in Russia or China. Now while I don't agree with what he did, I don't have a problem with him exercising his (and any other American's) right to do it.


After all, this is America...land of the free and home of the brave.