"You don't like what Kaepernick has to say? Then prove him wrong, BE the nation he can respect."

[Moostache]

15. I am fundamentally opposed to very little...I loathe fundamentalism in ALL its guises, but

in this case, I stand or rather I sit with Kaepernick.

The absolute right of freedom of speech is clearly meant to protect citizens from the government's attempts to silence or intimidate or imprison them for dissent. In that regards, the oh-so-offended members of law enforcement, the one's whose itty-bitty feelings are hurt when they are greeted with anything short of instant fealty and endless praise - NOT ALL COPS MIND YOU!!! Just the grandstanding idiots who play to the authoritarian reptile brain crowd of police worshippers - attempts to silence expression or dissent or protest is utterly odious and not deserving of respect.

Who do I respect?

Simple, the cop who is on the beat day-in and day-out and doing his job while trying to work WITH the community he SERVES, NOT the assholes who demand instant obedience or they go to force, yet has the courage to stand up and say what is right and obvious to any rational person - SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT FIT TO EVER BE POLICE, AND YET TOO MANY OF THEM ARE STILL ON FORCES TODAY!

NOT the guy who shows up at an 84 year old woman's house and uses force (pepper spray) on her.
http://abc7.com/news/video-police-pepper-spray-84-year-old-woman-in-oklahoma/1490033/

NOT the cops who showed up and executed Tamir Rice in 4 seconds.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/nov/26/cleveland-video-tamir-rice-shooting-police

NOT the cops who shoot a fleeing man in the back AND THEN try to plant evidence at the scene while blatantly contaminating the crime scene in the process.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/apr/08/us-police-fatal-shooting-south-carolina-phone-footage-viral-video

There are so many more cases that DON'T get on the news or that I am not going to link to here to ignore this problem. The attacks against Black Lives Matter and the attempts to rebrand them as "domestic terrorists" by the Faux Noise crowd and the Trumpster Fire himself are simply further proof that the issue is real and that there is a significant portion of the population (mainly older white people like myself...the over 40, white males that so often are discussed these days in context of the overt racism that some are resorting to now) that simply wants to believe untruths because the truth is painful to confront.

There is horrifying systemic racism throughout the criminal justice system. From the street cops to the district attorneys to the private prisons to the appellate courts and all the way to the SCOTUS itself. Denial of the problem and failure to confront it is not working. People are dying and injustice anywhere truly IS injustice everywhere.

So, to shine light on the issue...to take heat on one's self in service of others with less access to media coverage, with less of a platform to draw attention is in my estimation a profound service from Colin Kaepernick. At great personal loss (his endorsement future died with this decision) and at great threat to his personal safety (the death threats and crazies are really ginned up about this), a young man whom I was not particularly fond of as a player, has earned my respect and made it front and center in our national discussion once more. It is going to take the courage of 1,000's of Kaepernicks though to truly move the discussion into action and the action into change.

Kudos, Colin...I was never a fan of yours before, but I sit with you on this issue and applaud your efforts to do more that offer platitudes and fake respect to people who have not all earned what they seek without exceptions.