Colin Kaepernick and other American sports men who have decided to to take the courageous stance of not standing up for the recital of the American National anthem, are true American heroes. They are not sentimentalists. They are not Americans who will declare themselves to support their nation, 'right or wrong', when they have an abundance of evidence that their nation is patently 'wrong.'
They are not like ultra nationalists, of the kind that took Germany, in the past, into Nazihood, where the nation - or more accurately, the perceived guardians of what they want the nation to be, to become - could do no wrong and all other causes, however just and worthy, had to take second or no place at all. Where no sacrifice was considered too great or too onerous to demand and to make of the people. Where the country's flag and national anthem became god.
Yes, Colin Kaepernik and the other sportsmen and women are taking a stand for what they believe in; they are principled men and women. The kind of people who are not contented to 'walk on by' and ignore the injustices being meted out to their fellow Americans. They are not satisfied with continuing with their living as 'normal', while their less fortunate Americans are being gunned down and murdered by police officers who have become intoxicated with the power of their badges and their guns.
They are the kind of Americans who feel that they should not flaunt their better fortune while their less fortunate fellow Americans are being buffeted by the misery of poverty, joblessness, and oppression by the criminal justice system and the judiciary. They are the kind of true Americans who feel themselves to be unfree, while their fellow Americans are being cantonised in their enclaves of deprivation and containment by the controlling organs of the state.
Despite what the nationalist might argue or want us to think, the flags and national anthems of nations are neither sacred or sacrosanct. They are merely symbols of the often times, grandiloquent ideals, the values and the national sovereignty each nation proclaims to adhere to, or aspires towards achieving. Which is not usually what it reflected in the realities on the ground.
If anything should be sacrosanct, it should be humans, collectively struggling for the greater good of all, or the greatest majority. That is not what is being reflected in the daily realities of the lives of millions of Americans of colour and poor white Americans; that is something they can only dream about.
They dream of the American Dream, while the elites live the American Dream, which, in the end, is the philosophy of the survival of the fittest; caring only about self, primarily.
I do not see hundreds or thousands of wealthy and concerned Americans, whether black or white, declaring their support for Colin Kaepernick. Why is that? Is it because they are pathetic, they are afraid, they are only concerned about protecting their money and their wealth? They might even be people of straw.
By failing to declare they support for CK and Blacklivesmatters, they are declaring themselves to be collaborators with the system which is destroying the lives of black and generally, poor and dispossessed Americans of all ethnic background.
So, are they going to wake up and join the struggle, or is it that they have too much invested in the status quo?
Stay strong, Kaepernick, and all the Kaepernicks of America, and may the gods protect you.
It is you who have a stronger claim on being the 'true and loyal Americans', as you do not allow yourselves to be blinded to the reality of what is really happening, by the blindfold of a yet to be achieved idealised view of your country.
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