By Florida Bill Colin Rand Kaepernick is a man with a bulging wallet and large football helmet to cover a big empty head.
Kaepernick has arrived. Millions who never heard the name--and of those who did, most had no idea how to spell it--now are buzzing about the Forty Niners' million-dollar quarterback who sees America and Old Glory as a sign of gross oppression of blacks. He doesn't want to be a part of it, and he is notifying the world of the oppression and is laying the groundwork for a legacy he will likely one day regret.
Unfortunately for him, on the road he is choosing, he will be remembered as an unpatriotic, heavily tattooed athlete who has more money than most people can earn in a couple of lifetimes. Step aside, America, as this 29-year-old football player demonstrates his enmity and ill will for the United States.
You might expect more from Kaepernick. He was born of a 19-year old white mother and a black father who disappeared following conception. When three weeks old, he was adopted by Teresa and Rick Kaepernick, a white couple with two of their own children. He became part of the family and was reared with warmth and love in a modest home in northern Wisconsin and in California. He excelled as a high school and college athlete and became an NFL quarterback with the San Francisco Forty Niners in 2011. He led the club to Super Bowl XLV11 two years later, and has been rewarded with many millions of dollars in pay. His parents and siblings are proud of him, and he has enjoyed the adulation of friends and associates.
This year, surprising his coaches, teammates and fans, he demonstrated his discontent with his country by refusing to stand to honor the American flag and the national anthem during traditional patriotic ceremonies before a preseason game. Following the game, he explained his behavior to reporters:
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. This is a bigger issue than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting away with murder."
Has Kaepernick got a point? His concern for others is noble, but did he pick the proper forum? He has continued his refusal to stand, and the action has picked up other followers among the ranks of pampered, over-paid athletes, who have now switched instead to a kneeling posture. Even games played on Sept. 11, a solemn day in the minds of most Americans, were not immune to players' signs of disrespect for the flag and what it stands for.
His birth mother, hearing of her son's turning his back on America's flag, has been critical of her son. "There's ways to make change without disrespecting and bringing shame to the very country and family who afforded you so many blessings," she has said.
It's his constitutional right to denounce his country and its flag, President Obama has observed. However, Kaepernick is really not doing anything that actually helps his downtrodden or oppressed brothers. What he is mainly doing is hurting his own legacy. Instead of being remembered as an outstanding athlete, he will be remembered as the millionaire political activist who started this unfortunate trend. He will be like Jane Fonda and the Dixie Chicks who destroyed themselves by laying dirt on their country and its flag. Fonda, with her behavior in North Viet Nam, should have been prosecuted as a traitor, but eluded that fate. Her apology some years ago has failed to remove her stigma as a traitor which she must forever carry.
America has come a long way since the dark days of black oppression, but still more must be done to erase all vestiges of racism. Is Kaepernick aware that the USA has elected an African American President and a great number of black congressmen, governors, and mayors? A black man and a black woman have served as the Secretary of State for America in eight of the past 16 years. Professional coaches are black as are CEOs and university presidents. The NFL and NBA are dominated by African American players, all of whom earn millions of dollars for their athletic prowess. Special sports figues like Tiger Woods and Lebron James are billionaires. Doesn't Kaepernick recognize that America is an exceptional nation for freedom and human rights. Does he know of another country as good and compassionate as the United States? Is he as obtuse as his behavior indicates?
Kaepernick might take the time to read the short story, "The Man Without a Country" which was written 156 years ago by Edward Everett Hale. The story recounts the travails of army Lt. Phillip Nolan, a young union officer, who denounced his country, the USA, and said his greatest wish would be to never again hear the name of the United States or anything about it. During a trial, accused of treason, a judge granted his wish, and directed that Nolan was to never again set foot upon American soil, and he ordered further that no one should ever speak of the country in his presence.
The remaining years of Nolan's life were spent aboard naval warships sailing the high seas. As the decades of his life passed, Nolan grew old and longed for word of his country but there was none ever. Deprived of a homeland, he slowly and painfully learns of the true worth of his country. Nolan begged for forgiveness and for permission to again walk upon American land and hear of the activities inside the United States, but there was no mercy for him. When a young member of the crew of the ship railed in his presence about his own disenchantment with military life, Nolan, who was then a very old man, told him:
"Remember, boy, that behind officers and government, there is the country itself--your country, and you belong to her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her boy, as you would stand by your mother." Nolan died at sea, a sad and heartbroken old man. He was indeed the "Man without a Country."
Is there a message in this famous story? Is there a lesson to be learned? Colin Kaepernick believes he can thumb his nose at and denigrate the American flag which has meant so much to so many, white man and black men, and for which so many have given their lives.
Americans who publicly dishonor their country and their flag will be remembered for that and anything else they did will be meaningless.
XXX
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