In a dream I wish I would have had, I saw Colin Kaepernick walking into the stadium tonight, for the opening game of the NFL season.
"Colin, are you going to kneel for the Anthem?" someone yelled.
"Yes, even if I'm in the stands, I'm going to kneel," he said.
"Isn't that disrespectful?" another yelled.
"Kneeling has always been considered a way of showing respect, until now," he replied. "If I kneel, or if one of these guys down here kneels, then they don't count it for much, though, do they?"
"Are you here to see if any of the players will kneel?" someone asked.
"Certainly am," he said.
"Aren't you all washed up?" a guy in a red T-shirt asked.
He didn't answer, but another person in the crowd answered for him: "He's a Superbowl quarterback. He played played well in that game, leading the 49ers back before they lost."
"You a communist?" someone yelled.
He didn't answer.
"You call policemen 'Pigs'?"
"Don't you care about the servicemen who have lost their lives?"
By now, he was being peppered with unfavorable questions. He took some of them, and didn't answer others. Finally, he held his hands out, palms down, as if to say, "Enough."
"Hold on," he said. "Whatever you do or do not like about me, you need to know what this is all about. You speak about our servicemen, and how they have given their lives fighting for freedom. They go to places like Afghanistan, and Iraq, and they fight against the social injustices suffered by the people in those countries."
He paused, then went on. "What about the people suffering injustices here?" he asked. "Do we just tell them to move to another country, and then maybe we'll fight a war for them. But, as long as they are living here, they are none of our concern?"
He looked at the crowd. None of them were saying anything.
"This doesn't make sense," he said. "The soldiers fighting for the rights of those in foreign lands come home heroes. Now, I'm alright with that. But, me? If I stand up for the rights of those here in America, I'm the most unpopular person in the country."
He looked around. Still nobody was saying anything.
"You ought to be with me on this one," he said. "Maybe you don't choose to kneel during the National Anthem, but you ought to be with me. These aren't people in some far away land. These are people right here in America. Some of you have a saying, don't you? What is it, 'America First'? Well, isn't that what you say? These people are your own, don't you care about them?"
Most of the crowd was quiet, but one person spat on the ground and answered Kaepernick. "They're not our own. Don't call them that," he said.
Kaepernick gave him a sharp look, but the man continued. "They're criminals. And, if a police officer tells you to do something, you do it. You don't give him at attitude."
Kaepernick sighed. "Boston," he said. "This league has a team in Boston -- in that area. You know what is happening there? They have about 1,000 unsolved murders in three communities dominated by blacks and immigrants. You ask the police about those murders, trying to learn if they are even investigating them, and they don't even have all the background information on the victims, or if they do, they don't release it. Ask yourself why there should be more unsolved murders there than other places. Are these just poor black people, and they don't matter? It doesn't matter if poor blacks are murdered, so why solve these cases?"
He paused. Looked around. Everyone was quiet.
"Chicago," Kaepernick said. "The NFL has a team in Chicago. A month ago, there were 74 shootings that weekend, 12 of them were fatal. That's equal to a pretty significant mass shooting, isn't it? You go ahead and say we can't blame it on the police, but can we? There are nights when these parts of town have few police on patrol. If you don't have a police presence, you are going to have crime. If you don't care about these people because they are just poor black people -- and you think they are all criminals, at that -- then you aren't going to go help them. Some people say the police are afraid to go into these districts. I don't know; I think they just don't care. One in twenty shooting are solved? What does that tell you? Are they even investigating them adequately? After all, why patrol these neighborhoods and why investigate when these people are murdered? They're just black people, and -- and according to some of you, criminals at that."
As he said the last sentence, he looked straight in the eye at the guy who had said they were not our own people, but just criminals.
Kaepernick was still staring at him, but he continued."If people in Iraq need some help, we'll send an army. But, if its people in Chicago, we might not even have an officer available."
His gaze left the man, and searched the rest of the audience. "Oh, by the way, yesterday, the trial of Jason Van Dyke got underway. He's the Chicago officer accused of murdering LaQuan McDonald. You know him? LaQuan was the guy walking down the middle of the street when the officer unloaded 16 bullets on him, 14 of them after he had already fallen to the ground. That's 16 bullets just for jaywalking."
Kaepernick looked around the crowd, anger in his eyes. "You ask me why I don't salute during the National Anthem. You expect me to salute that? You expect me to salute all that?"
The teams were now coming on the field and lining up. Kaepernick motioned at them. "People will tell you, Don't even roll the cameras for the National Anthem; Just wait and cut straight to the game. This crowd you are all part of, they don't care about people being killed in Boston and Chicago and Ferguson Missouri. 'Leave us alone about all that,' they say, 'We just came to watch a football game.' "
Kaepernick pulled his fist back over his shoulder, as if a football were in his hand, and he was about to throw a strike over the middle. And, he did deliver a strike over the middle, right to the center of their hearts. "If your game is more important than your people, then your nation lies in ruins," he said as he dropped to one knee for the National Anthem.
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