My biggest issue with the kneeling is how many stupid people are getting attention (like that girl? guy? whatever in the soccer picture above). I protesting tha racism and tha other stuffs! Look at me! Look. At. Me Motherfucker! Also whatever dolt wrote some article recently about how Colin was right - the anthem is racist - which got a lot of traction amongst my more liberal friends who don't think about issues past whether its something that sounds good or not....going on and on about how the anthem has like the 16th verse which is about slaves and shit.....yeah, umm, dumbass? he's not protesting the actual anthem itself.
I will stand for the goddamned flag despite knowing there's a shit ton wrong in this country. A few people summed it up earlier - it represents what we can be. It's an idea. It's a symbol of all of us, good and bad. I'll get a goddamned tear in my eye during the anthem for the same reasons (even though I really wish we had the Soviet anthem, it's just completely bad-ass).
Millionaires in tights playing homoerotic ass grabbing games for 15 seconds at a time before a 2 minute commercial break looking for more attention to tha racisms and tha cops who never once told their owner "Look, owner man, that motherfucker across the locker room is murdering dogs and makes us look like fucking shitheads. I'm not playing until he's fired." or "Look, team, I'm not playing until y'all refuse to play with these shithead drug and pimp motherfuckers the owner hired, because they make all those unfortunate kids in the ghetto think that you can still drug and pimp even after you've made it in sports because no one will give a fuck as long as you can ball and that ain't something I want this team to portray." I'm not taking them seriously. They're fucking clowns.
On the other hand if I have to hear one more time that "it's disrespecting veterans" I'm going to....shit, get angrier than I am now. That's the gayest shit I've ever heard. For one our Founders would have a coronary if they realized that not only do we have a standing Army, we devote more of our money by a hundred fold to maintaining that standing military than we do to education (No, I don't give a fuck about healthcare, with more education we'd need less healthcare). I mean the one goddamned thing that scared the founders of this country most was a standing fucking Army - but now patriotism means having to "honor" people who were a part of that standing Army every time the flag is raised and the pretty music played? Oh hell fuck no.
Want to honor veterans? Go to a veteran's day parade (which should stand on its own apart from Armistice Day but that would cost money). Or go read to one of them in a veteran's hospital. Nah, I'll just make some pretty racist comment on Facebook about how them jigaboos don't respect tha Veterans and make sure my background photo is about how all mah heroes wear digicam - and make sure I always talk about how I was either a barracks mattress or how I would have joined the military but I can't take orders but I really respect the ones who do!
Not standing for the Anthem/flag doesn't disrespect veterans. It does disrespect everyone who wants this country to be a better place though. And it does make you look like a fucking clown, especially when you didn't knock the fuck out of the latest wife beater or murderer on your team who is doing more to set underprivileged kids up for failure than CNN trying to squeeze every penny out of the latest cop-involved shooting.
Oh and everyone up above who said the First Amendment doesn't trickle down to your workplace is correct, and anyone who disagrees is wrong. The First Amendment only applies to Congress making a law restricting speech, which is why you have a whole lot of local laws that allow it. Second - it's a workplace. If the owner says stand the fuck up or be fired, you have 0 recourse.
And I also agree - this would pretty much be forgotten by now if Trump wasn't fanning the flames, but he's excellent at keeping us all distracted with shitshows while the real dealings are going on. And the media is more than willing to earn their money with easy-peasy racisms flags shootings trinkets stuff than real investigations.
Lastly, if you're someone who wears a flag hat or flag shirt or has flag napkins at your 4th of July picnic and you're upset about kneelers, go suck balls. All that shit is against the Flag code. I don't take hypocrites seriously at all.