It all began in the NFL. Former San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first professional athlete (or “former” professional athlete since Kaepernick was not playing and has not since) to engage in any type of protest of the U.S. flag or the National Anthem in pre-game ceremonies. Needless to say, responses to his kneeling were mixed, but tens of millions of Americans could not and still cannot comprehend how a NFL player who makes millions of dollars playing a game could justify protesting anything to do with the United States of America, especially its flag and national anthem. Think about it: there’s NO other nation on Earth where several thousand young men are able to make so much money that have so big a platform as in the U.S. as in the NFL.
What enraged (and still enrages) so many Americans is the protest using THAT symbol of America — the flag that to these days is draped over the coffins of military heroes that after losing their lives in overseas combat come home wearing that Freedom symbol over their lifeless bodies.
What was the Kaepernick protest about? He seemed a bit confused at first. But then when questioned over and over stated that he was protesting police brutality against members of the African American community. That explained the socks he wore at press conference brandishing pictures of pigs in police uniforms.
The Protest
Kaepernick’s first protest was before a pre-season game in the 2016 season. His protests grew and other NFL players picked up the Old Glory/national anthem protests before games. Their continually doing so galvanized NFL fans. What has always been a united fan base was immediately splintered down patriotism lines and remains so 3 years later.
Nike famously immediately tagged Kaepernick as a “consultant,” speaker, and protestor-in-chief for the most popular shoe company on Earth. And Nike has raked in millions capitalizing on Kaepernick and his protests. Many thought Nike’s stock would tank from shrinking shoe sales. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s been just the opposite.
Nike Capitalizes
Through the last year or so not much “new” has happened. Nike’s sales and subsequent stock prices stagnated. Nike needed a new controversy — something to imitate the 2016 Colin uproar. They found it!
For the 2019 July 4th Independence Day celebrations, Nike issued a new shoe bearing on the heel the embroidered U.S. flag named the “Betsy Ross” flag in honor of the creator of the first United States flag that showed a star for each of the original 13 colonies. Kaepernick immediately reached out to Nike to let them know THAT flag is racially insensitive. After all, Betsy Ross was a daughter of America’s Revolutionary War, and “they” were pretty much all “slave folks.”
Nike responded immediately: they cancelled the shoe. The media were all notified, and the media gave Nike “Colin Kaepernick Nike Big Money Part 2.”
The shoes reached resale prices of up to 20 times the original retail price and were reselling online for 20 times the original retail price after the sportswear brand pulled the sneakers. Nike’s stock price? In one day it went from $84 to $86 a share — not a landfall, but a nice one-day move for the shoe giant. Nike’s stock price was at $80 a share at the “first” Kaepernick protest.
Betsy Ross: America’s Racist Flagmaker
What could Betsy Ross could have done to so upset Mr. Kaepernick? She made a flag. On it were 13 racist stars. That’s it. By Colin’s determination, because she was an early American and created a positive symbol for those settlers from those 13 colonies — some of which owned slaves — her symbol of the 13 HAD to be a racist symbol.
The truth is that Betsy was raised in Pennsylvania as a Quaker. She married outside of her religious sect and left it. She was a member of an anti-slavery church, was a devout supporter of her church’s doctrines on the matter, and never had any slave ownership personally or in her family.
Regarding those who maintain that the Betsy Ross flag has been used by white supremacists and is one of their preferred symbols, there is nothing to verify that. In fact, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism (not at all conservative) has a database with more than 150 “hate symbols.” The Betsy Ross flag isn’t among them.
“The Betsy Ross flag is a common historical flag,” Mark Pitcavage of the ADL told CNBC. While it’s been used by white supremacists “from time to time,” he has “never once thought about” adding the Betsy Ross flag to the list.
To Nike and to Mr. Kaepernick, none of that matters.
By the way: there’s one more thing. Check out this picture:
That’s the Betsy Ross flag hanging on the far left and far right behind Barack Obama at his inauguration. Most doubt that the former President would have allowed such if was actually in any way affiliated with White Supremacy.
Since Colin made his stand in 2016, his doing so has been a symbol: a symbol embraced by many and summarily rejected by many others. Supporters point to the Constitution’s First Amendment that guarantees the free speech for all Americans even regarding causes not acceptable to all.
In the U.S., people can legally support Communism, conduct conventions, celebrate Communist heroes, and espouse the goodness of Marxism. Federal law allows it. But that right cuts two-ways: those in the U.S. who oppose Communism and Marxism have the same right to speak out about their doing so. But there’s a rub.
Today’s Leftists have commandeered the control of who determines what’s O.K. to be for and certainly what everyone MUST be against. The theme for the day of late has been “everything and everyone that had anything to do with Colonialism or anything we THINK had to do with Colonialism is racist…period. Their ideas and ideals are neutered by “our” perception of their being espoused by a racist.
So Betsy is racist today but never was until Colin said so. In fact, Betsy has been a folk-hero for two centuries as something of an icon in American History.
Scratch that depiction from American history books.
It Continues
This latest liberal elitism certainly is not held exclusively by athletes — although there are MORE pros lining up to join the battle. But the outrage certainly is not exclusive to athletics.
A former Navy intelligence specialist recently took a page out of Colin Kaepernick’s playbook and refused to stand for the national anthem during morning colors. However, she quickly learned she’d made a huge mistake.
Conservative Tribune reported that Petty Officer 2nd Class Janaye Ervin was stripped of her security clearance and assigned to menial labor for a few days before she was forced to leave the Navy for disrespecting our country so blatantly.
It all started on September 19, 2018, when Ervin refused to stand for the anthem when she was on reserve duty at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. The International BusinessTimes reported that Ervin claimed she was trying to make a statement about blacks being persecuted in the United States by doing this. “I just didn’t want to stand at that moment,” Ervin said “I can’t stand for this song knowing that the song isn’t for me, being black. The song doesn’t represent me at all. To be honest, I never really thought about the flag my entire life, I had no reason to. It’s just a flag.”
The next day, Ervin’s superiors read her her rights and gave her a warning about potentially compromising her security clearance, which she needed for both her military and civilian job. One day after that, she was stripped of her security clearance and escorted out of the secure area where she was working.
Ervin is now claiming that she was never told which order she was violating, but this is clearly untrue since she violated the 10th General Order for Sentries, “…To salute all officers and colorsand standards not cased..…” which is taught in Navy boot camp.
All members of the Navy are required to memorize all 11 general orders in bootcamp, and they are aware that violating any one of them is subject to Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and is subject to whatever punishment is decided by court-martial.
On September 21, Ervin took to Facebook to publicly complain about how “unfair” this has been for her. “The Navy has decided to punish me for defending the Constitution and has taken away my equipment I need to do my Naval job,” she wrote, according to PopularMilitary.com.
One More Athletic Outrage
Enter Megan Rapino. Who doesn’t know who the purple-haired, self-proclaimed spokesperson for the entire U.S. Women’s World Cup team? She’s probably the most visible female professional athlete in the World today. If you’re unsure that is factual, just ask her: she’ll certainly confirm it.
Megan will not sing the National Anthem before games. She will not put her hand over her heart when it’s played or sung. She refused to visit the White House to be honored by the President for the team’s victory in the World Cup. She hates the White House and, of course Donald Trump. But, whoops! She changed her mind — sort of. She doesn’t hate the White House, just President Trump.
Her post World Cup interviews have been nothing short of bizarre. All of the late-night talk show hosts are clamoring for her appearance. They everyone fawn over anyone who dislikes the President and will say so on national television. Whoopi and the entire View gang foam at the mouth for her! She’s a rock star — no, a women’s star — no, a professional athlete star — or all of the above. Again, if you don’t think that’s factual just ask Megan.
I know she’s gay. I know she’s liberal. I know she hates Donald Trump. I know she hates conservatism. But I wonder if she hates her ability to travel around the world representing the United States in front of millions live and on television to lead her team to the World Championship in Women’s soccer?
Megan as any athlete who excels personally brings many things to the table that qualify her to play a game at that level. But the United States (and the U.S. government through the presidency of Donald Trump) funded a large part of her trips to world fame AND the World Cup. “The U.S. government:” that’s you and me! That’s America and Americans — all of us. Megan’s “stick in the eye” for America started a while ago.
Writer Warner Todd Huston notes, “Rapinoe raised eyebrows in the 2018 season by taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem even though she is playing for the U.S. Women’s National soccer team. Her taking a knee only came to an end starting in the 2019 season because the team passed a rule requiring players to stand during the anthem. But she right away said that she would never sing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ again, nor would she place her hand over her heart because she hates America.”
She hates America.
Summary
It was sad for me to watch the Women’s World Cup this year to see and hear the stands full of thousands of foreign citizens stand and proudly and loudly sing their nation’s national anthem in tandem with their team members standing on the field to start each game in which their team competed. It was a stark contrast to watch the U.S. women. There was Megan, stomping on the American symbol of freedom: Old Glory.
There are many appropriate things I could say and ask here. I won’t do that — you know them all. But I will close by saying this: this certainly is the freest country on Earth. Everyone has the freedom to choose many things. And the First Amendment gives all the right to say anything no matter how others view it with no threat of government intervention. That certainly includes Megan.
If Megan Rapino hates the U.S. and its symbols so much that she would desecrate for millions — no tens of millions — the U.S. symbols of freedom, why does she stay? A soccer player with her prowess could easily go to any of the European or Asian countries and be an instant star constantly in the limelight in that country. And in doing so she would not have to worry about a U.S. President that she hates that 60+ million Americans voted to lead this country. And European countries pay their soccer stars huge amounts of money — which Megan thinks makes U.S. hockey look cheap.
Rapino and Kaepernick should think about cutting a group deal to represent some foreign entities for big money. They’re certainly qualified. They could both move their mini empires overseas and put behind them the horrors they so hate in the U.S. today.
I doubt Janaye Ervin would be qualified to join this pair. She made a mistake thinking that EVERY American institution would run from any type of reprimand for those from their ranks who desecrate any American symbol. The U.S. Military didn’t fall in line like did the National Football League and U.S. Soccer.
Tens of millions of Americans think the NFL and U.S. Soccer should duplicate the Military. I tend to agree.
Amen