Now, before I get started on making my point, I want to point out a few things. First, I in no way agree with Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit through the National Anthem as a form of protest. With that being said, his right to protest is something guaranteed in the Constitution, as well is my right to give you my opinion on this whole fiasco. If you don’t know about Kaepernick or his decision to sit through the anthem, go look it up and then come back to this place in the article.

With that being said, let's begin. I believe that Kaepernick could have chosen a much better and efficient form of protest than to sit out the national anthem, just like many Americans do. I was livid when I first heard the news, and began to exclaim my feelings on my Twitter page, just like everybody else. Then I began to think about how people like myself were reacting and looked at the situation from a different perspective.

Obviously Kaepernick has a point when he says that there is a problem with the way blacks are treated in this country, specifically by the small minority of police officers that create this problem. In this country, we’ve seen many different ways people protest this occurrences, many of them being violent rioting and protesting that result in no real change and devastation for the communities that they occur in. When this happens, people who have no real care for what happens in said communities say that they should protest peacefully. Isn’t that exactly what Kaepernick is doing?

He is sitting on a bench while during the most patriotic moment of a sporting event, which he has every right to do. Whether you agree or disagree with him in irrelevant, this man is standing up (or sitting down) for what he thinks his right. Think about all the great things that have occurred in this country when people with a platform have stood up for what they believed in. Kaepernick’s protest is so simple, and yet it has created such a huge spectacle that has triggered so many people to be offended.

Here are some of the responses that led me to rethink my position: “How is Kaepernick oppressed making x amount of $?” or “He’s not even black” or, and my personal favorite “Go to another country and try to do the same thing.”

Are you kidding me?

1. At no time did Kaepernick say that he specifically was oppressed. Also, why would how much money he makes have anything to do with what he’s talking about? The man is using his platform to stand up for people who don’t have the voice to stand up for themselves.

2. Really? What color his skin matters? If he were white would his opinion or stance be invalid? Would his name and stance hold more weight if he was black?

3. The idea of Colin Kaepernick being able to do this is because he's in this country, and our constitution allows him to do as he pleases. It’s incredible to see how many people are in favor of free speech until someone does or says something that they disagree with.

Later on in the week, Kaepernick wore a shirt that showed Fidel Castro and socks that represented police officers as pigs, and these two events almost led me to delete this entire article because it proved that this guy is an idiot, until I saw a tweet from Dan LeBetard, “You can agree with Kaepernick’s stance/reason AND think he’s a dope for wearing a Fidel Castro T-shirt.”

I do think that Kaepernick is doing this in the absolute wrong way, both in the way that he's protesting and the clothes he’s choosing to wear that ironically contradict his stance. Although I may disagree with every action he takes to fight this cause, it is extremely encouraging to see an athlete use his platform to speak up for something that he thinks is wrong in our country.