Kaepernick and his copycats won't change America by insulting it - and the brave men and women who died for his freedom to protest in the first place

[superbeets]

[h=1]PIERS MORGAN: Kaepernick and his copycats won't change America by insulting it - and the brave men and women who died for his freedom to protest in the first place[/h]

By PIERS MORGAN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 18:10, 5 September 2016 | UPDATED: 19:19, 5 September 2016



I once failed to stand for the American national anthem.



It happened during the Republican National Convention in 2012.
It wasn’t a deliberate snub.


I was sitting with my then CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer just after we had done a live TV hit, and we were still attached to a number of cables which prevented us from jumping to our feet when we heard the Star-Spangled Banner strike up.


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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, middle, kneels during the national anthem before the team's NFL preseason football game against the San Diego Chargers on Thursday

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Kaepernick has come under fire from some people offended by his decision not to stand during the national anthem before San Francisco's games



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[superbeets]

It was a mortifying moment because delegates saw us not standing and went berserk, screaming and shouting at us to get up.
After a few seconds, we were able to release ourselves and do so, but not quick enough to avoid a slew of negative and woefully inaccurate press stories about our supposedly ‘disgraceful anti-American behaviour’.
(Wolf’s about the most patriotic American I have ever met)
Now, I’m not American obviously and this wasn’t my anthem.
I had no obligation to do anything, constitutional or otherwise.
But I was living and working in America at the time and I fully understood the paramount importance of showing proper respect to its anthem and flag - particularly as I’m British.
The lyrics to the anthem come from “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, a poem written by a man named Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British warships in 1812.
Key was inspired by the large American flag, the Star Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the American victory over my own countrymen.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that the Star-Spangled Banner be played at military and other appropriate occasions.
It soon started being played at sporting events too and in 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a bill officially adopting it as the national anthem of the United States of America.

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Mortifying moment: Piers Morgan and Wolf Blitzer were unable to stand for the Star-Spangled Banner at the 2012 Republican Convention because they were attached to a number of cables; delegates nonetheless went 'berserk'

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U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe (pictured) knelt during the national anthem Sunday night before the Seattle Reign's match with the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women's Soccer League



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[superbeets]

Seattle Seahawks player Jeremy Lane (left and circled above) refused to stand during the national anthem ahead of the team's game with Oakland on September 1

It is now formal United States Code that during a rendition of the anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with their right hands over their heart.
I have always been very moved when observing how fiercely Americans observe this ritual; the pride and passion in the anthem, the flag and the country is always intensely palpable.
Indeed, it’s one of the very few things which absolutely unites America, a nation which remains so divided.
So when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose not to stand to the Star-Spangled Banner before a preseason game last week, I knew it was going to be a very deal.


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Especially when he explained his decision by saying: ‘I’m not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.’
Kaepernick is biracial, and was adopted and raised by white parents. He has been outspoken in the past on civil rights issues and is a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
I don’t doubt the sincerity of his concerns about police brutality, nor do I doubt his fundamental right to protest against the anthem and flag in this manner.
But we all have the same right to find his behaviour repellently disrespectful.
After all, the very freedom which allows him to protest so publicly was won by thousands of courageous young men and women in the US military who gave their lives so others could enjoy the freedoms they never lived to see.


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[superbeets]

That is what the national anthem means.

That is what the flag represents.

That is what he is insulting.

Everyone who loves America, as I do, has things they’d like to change about it too.

For instance, it’s not a secret that I find the gun laws absurd and a catastrophic catalyst to endless death and mayhem.

But it would never cross my mind, even if I were American, to protest about this by refusing to stand for the national anthem.



Why? Because even those who agreed with me would find my conduct so offensive they would find it impossible to support me.
That’s where Kaepernick has been so misguided and naïve.

He could have made his protest in myriad ways but to do it by snubbing the anthem and flag is an act of deliberate unpatriotic provocation, which has merely served to ostracise him and massively distract from his powerful and important message.

At a time when America vitally needs more racial harmony, not less, he has made things worse not better.

‘I’m not anti-American,’ Kaepernick insists, and I believe him.

Yet that’s exactly what he looks like, and exactly how many millions of Americans are interpreting his actions.

As President Obama, who endorses Kaepernick’s constitutional right to act as he did, said today: ‘When it comes to the flag and the national anthem, and the meaning it holds for the men and women in uniform, and those who’ve fought for us, that is a tough thing for them to get past to then hear what his deeper concerns are.’

Predictably, a bandwagon’s now started with others keen to jump on and make a name for themselves. Most of them, I suspect, for entirely self-serving publicity reasons.

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem on Sunday night before the Seattle Reign’s game with Chicago Red Stars.

‘It’s the least I can do,’ she tweeted, indicating it was a ‘nod to Kaepernick.’

Really?
I’d have thought the ‘least’ you could do, Ms Rapinoe, is show some damn respect to the armed forces who have protected and will continue to protect the precious freedoms which allow you to travel the world as a highly paid athlete representing your country.

Same goes for you, Mr Kaepernick.

So get off your knees, get off your backsides, stand to attention, put your hands on your hearts and thank God you spend your life chasing footballs not dodging bullets.
Then we’ll believe you when you say you’re not anti-America, and we may listen harder to the message you want to convey.


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[superbeets]

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Get off your knees, get off your backsides, stand to attention, put your hands on your hearts and thank God you spend your life chasing footballs not dodging bullets


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[GasMan]

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Get off your knees, get off your backsides, stand to attention, put your hands on your hearts and thank God you spend your life chasing footballs not dodging bullets


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Well put

 

[Seymour]

I cant believe Kaapernick made the team - if he was cut he was gonna be hanging out with Ray Rice - he geats 12 mil this year - in CA he keeps about 5.5 mil - house, furnishings and a few cars - he will be broke within 2 years - so in 2 years he will realize how unimportant he is

 

[roadreeler57]

Another snotnose crybaby in a long list of snotnose crybabys right now in this country thanks to liberal snotnose crybaby media that keeps pushing the issue for absolutely no reason.....Anybody who works hard & maintains a good atitude in this country can go far regardless of race...

 

[roadreeler57]

Another snotnose crybaby in a long list of snotnose crybabys right now in this country thanks to liberal snotnose crybaby media that keeps pushing the issue for absolutely no reason.....Anybody who works hard & maintains a good atitude in this country can go far regardless of race...

Example....Look at Michael Strahan that went from Kelly & Michael & is now going to be on Good morning America.....Now theres a black man with the right atitude to be sucessful....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Strahan

 

[superbeets]

Team USA ice hockey coach says he will bench any player who dares to copy Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest

John Tortorella, the Team USA and Columbus Blue Jackets head coach, has said that if any of his players sit during the national anthem he will force them to sit out the rest of the game. Tortorella, who has earned a reputation for speaking his own mind at times, made the comments in relation to Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback who has been kneeling for the national anthem during preseasons games.

 

[The Guesser]

G-d Bless America and having the Freedom to do what Kaepernick did, and the freedom to show support for what he did, drowning out the voices of tyranny that would ban him and punish him for doing what he did.


Colin Kaepernick jersey leads NFL sales after national anthem protest


BY JOSHUA BARAJAS September 6, 2016 at 6:02 PM EDT

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) walks into the tunnel after the game against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. Photo by Orlando Ramirez/USA Today Sports via Reuters


Based on online sales, San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick has the most popular NFL jersey as the football season kicks off.Weeks after his silent protest of the U.S. national anthem led to a slew of think pieces, the back-up quarterback’s No. 7 jersey was the top-seller at NFLShop.com, CBS Sports reported.
RELATED LINKS

• Fame offers Kaepernick and fellow athletes a platform for dissent

The demand for the jersey looks to outweigh the number of fans who have burned it, disagreeing with Kaepernick’s actions.
The quarterback made headlines for sitting — and later taking a knee — during a preseason game. Later, Kaepernick told reporters that his move was meant “to bring awareness and make people realize what’s really going on in this country.”
“There are a lot of things that are going on that are unjust, people aren’t being held accountable for, and that’s something that needs to change,” he said. “That’s something this country stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all. And it’s not happening for all right now.”
As The Intercept, among others, have pointed out, the third stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” penned by Francis Scott Key, is extremely unsympathetic to slaves.
Kaepernick’s protest has “once again made us realize the power of athletes,” William Rhoden, former sports columnist for The New York Times, told the NewsHour last week.

Now, Rhoden said, there are more young African-American men who are “becoming much more fluent in our history and are really becoming unafraid to use this podium to express views that are controversial and not controversial, and using this sort of national anthem as sort of the lightning rod for a lot of these controversies.”

 

[superbeets]

Let the police who work security at the stadium not show up on Sunday since it is their right to protest also.

 

[superbeets]

Will he take a knee for the 13 killed in Chicago last weekend. Oh, wait...not newsworthy enough

 

[superbeets]

So Obama supports folks exercising constitutional rights. Does this include the 2nd amendment?

 

[thecentaur]

Unfortunately I think we are trying to shame people who have no shame, or enlighten the willfully ignorant

These athletes and Kaepernick jersey buyers cannot be persuaded or convinced. They see something that offends people they don't like and will defiantly support it to the end.

 

[superbeets]

'We believe in patriotism in the NFL': Commissioner Roger Goodell hits out at Kaepernick's national anthem protest - as the 49ers QB says he will donate ALL the money from his increased jersey sales

NEW NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has spoken out against Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand during the national anthem, after the quarterback said he will donate money from jersey sales. When asked about the San Francisco quarterback's (right) protest, Goodell (left) offered his 'personal thoughts' on the matter. 'I don't necessarily agree with what he is doing,' the commissioner said. 'On the other hand, we believe very strongly in patriotism in the NFL. I personally believe very strongly in that.' Earlier, Kaepernick said in an Instagram post (inset) all the money he gets from his increased jersey sales will be spent to help communities. The 28-year-old's jersey has surged to become the most popular in the NFL. He could receive as much as $500,000 from jersey sales, having already pledged to donate $1 million to help his cause.

 

[ScottL]

G-d Bless America and having the Freedom to do what Kaepernick did, and the freedom to show support for what he did, drowning out the voices of tyranny that would ban him and punish him for doing what he did.

What else would we expect from the resident KAPO-nick than a post that conveniently drowns out that this POS is anti-America and dumber than Shit, which is the sole reason he's taken this idiotic stance. The scum deserves to be outcasted by SANE and RATIONAL people who actually do embrace our free society without celebrating our FRINGIEST outspoken idiots.

Can't wait to be "hit back hard."

 

[akphidelt]

Kaep is such a disgrace. Now Tortorella is a pimp!! You sit, you stay sitting.

 

[Albatross]

Kaep is such a disgrace. Now Tortorella is a pimp!! You sit, you stay sitting.

He he is a disgrace. He will be forgotten soon.

 

[Coldweather]

He is a big fat poo poo head imo!kth)(&^ cockingasnook()