WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE WRONG

I have no doubt that training to be in the National Football League is tough. I have no doubt that Colin Kaepernick and his ilk have experienced some tough training. But, I wonder how they might handle basic training in the military.

One of the big differences is that when I was in basic training, I was paid $75.00 per month. Kaepernick is paid 19 million dollars per year. I think I could take a lot of pain for that kind of money.

One of the reasons the military has basic training is, of course, training in the basic skills of soldiers. The other reason is to weed out undesirables. It is to make certain that the survivors of that training can and will serve their country with honor and skill. I am of the opinion that the Kaepernicks of this world would not survive this  weeding out. I and other millions like me went through basic training to become soldiers so that we could help defend this country and protect it for all of us, even individuals like Kaepernick.

Yes, this ungrateful bum has the right to sit on his butt during the playing of the National Anthem. He has that right because someone fought for his right. He has the right to be disrespectful, disgusting, and embarrassing to his team. The fans of the NFL have the right to boo him also and boo him they do.

The NFL says they do not require any player to stand and show respect for our country or our flag. Players, they say, have the right of self-expression. In other words, they have the right to be wrong. Okay, we the people have the right to refuse to pay for this punk and his dishonorable actions. People in the stands should stand up and turn their backs on him if he ever again gets the opportunity to play. He is at best a so-so player anyway. He is what we used to call, “more trouble than he’s worth.” He would be an embarrassment to any NFL team.

Kaepernick says he is unhappy because of his belief that black people are mistreated by the police in this country. Now this is a man who has armed police protection wherever he goes. Kind of silly, huh?

Remember Tim Tebow? Tim took some of his football money and built a hospital in the Philippines to serve poor people. How much has Kaepernick spent to improve the lives of the so-called mistreated black people? How much of his 19 million dollar salary goes to the improvement of schools, housing, health care, or for that matter anything in the black community? How about zip, zero. Like so many of his ilk, he is all talk and no action. He is just a punk.

So now the NAACP is trying to force some NFL team to sign Kaepernick to a contract. They say he is being discriminated against because of his ethnicity. How about some truth here. He is a distraction and he would bring grief to any team. He hasn’t been signed because he is a mediocre player at best and worse than that, he is trouble with a capital T.

I have an idea. How about we give him a rifle and a helmet and park his carcass in some Middle Eastern desert with bullets flying over his head and IEDs going off all around him. Or better yet how about we let him serve as a pallbearer carrying some brave soldier in a “flag” covered coffin back to his family. Do you think he might develop some new sense of what it means to be an American? Well, me neither, but I can hope, can’t I?

Ron Scarbro