For the past few weeks, all the Internet can talk about is NFL player Colin Kaepernick and his refusal to stand for the National Anthem. This past Sunday was the fifteenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Kaepernick and other players refused to stand while the anthem played this past Sunday while they not only honored our nation, but honored the 2,000+ people who lost their lives 15 years ago.

I come from a patriotic family, both my grandfathers were Marines in World War II, my great uncle was in the Army during World War II, my cousin was a Marine during the early years of the Iraq war. I was taught to respect the country I live in and its flag, after all, I had family members who lost friends defending that flag and the country I have the privilege of living in.

So to hear that a whiny kid like Kaepernick complaining about how terrible my country is and how he refused to stand for the anthem to honor the flag that people died to defend?

I am infuriated.

I don’t want to hear about how he as a Constitutional Right, I know he does because I’ve studied my fair share of American history, I know what rights we have here in America.

That’s why I’m so infuriated.

My grandfathers fought in a war some of the nastiest, craziest, most ruthless soldiers to ever fight in battle to make sure we stayed free.

My cousin lost best friends in Iraq, they died so we could stay free.

My great uncle almost died in a German forest in the dead of winter during a battle so that we could stay free.

And there are millions of stories just like those.

Those millions of people have died and risked their lives to defend the flag that you refuse to respect.

On February 23rd, 1945, a group of five Marines finally got to the top of Mount Suribachi to claim the crucial island of Iwo Jima off the coast of Japan, a signal of victory after five days a battle, a victory that was one of the most, if not the most crucial battle in World War II. Do you know what they did? What they did to signal victory? What they did to show their comrades that the battle was won? They raised the flag on the top of that mountain. But that flag didn’t stay up. The Marines had to raise it yet again, the second time it was captured in a photograph. That photo has become one of the most iconic photos in American photos.

On September 11th, 2001, 2,226 people died in three separate terrorist attacks. Do you know what gave the people of America hope? Do you know what made people come together as one?

The flag.

Firefighters and first responders raised a flag on the site of the World Trade Center on a pile of rubble. It reminded everyone why they were there, reminded America that everyone, no matter their backgrounds, their ethnicity, their race, their religion, their socioeconomic status was something more than black and white or Christian and Muslim or poor and rich. They were all American. We were all American and that flag that flag that you refuse to respect was a symbol of that fact. When Americans saw the flag on 9/11 they didn’t think of the discriminatory laws of the first haf of the 20th century, they didn’t think of slavery in the 1800s, they didn’t think of the Klu Klux Klan, they thought of the entire country standing together as one.

Our country is not one of one race or one religion or one ethnicity. We are a melting pot of cultures unlike any other country in this world is and our flag is a symbol of our great nation.

Have we always done the right thing in every situation that has arised? No, we have not. Have we always been fair to every person of every race, gender, ethnicity or background? No, we have not.

Women were once treated as second-class citizens, we weren’t allowed to vote, we weren’t allowed to own land, we weren't allowed to vote, we weren't given equal opportunity because of our gender.

But you can bet your rear end that I stand up every single time I hear that anthem play.

Because that flag and that song represent something so much bigger than me, something that’s even bigger than you and your pro football player comrades.

I have a flag hanging in my dorm room under my loft bed, it hangs on the wall behind my dresser and my TV, across from my couch so I look at it a lot.

When I see that flag I see the war torn soldiers on Iwo Jima, I see my cousin marching in the local Memorial Day Parade with my Grandfather when I was four, I see my cousin coming home from Iraq when I was six, I see the flag flying over Ground Zero, giving the American people hope. When I see the flag I don’t see a single group of people of one race, one ethnicity, one culture, I see a group of all different people of all different colors.

So to see your spoiled, whiny self, kneeling while soldiers, soldiers who risk their lives to protect you hold our flag? It absolutely infuriated me.

There are other ways to speak your mind, there are other ways to convey your message that don’t involve disrespecting millions of people who have put their lives on the line so you can have the right to be a whiny little baby. There are ways to convey a message without disrespecting every man and woman who put their life on the line so that you could have everything handed to you your entire life. So that you could go to college and live the life of a Division I athlete. So that you could be paid exorbitant amounts of money to throw a football every now and again.

And to the NFL, you’ve failed yet again. You had the opportunity to punish your athletes when they were accused of terrible things like assault, sexual assault, battery, and everything else under the sun. This season you refused to allow the Dallas Cowboys to wear commemorative stickers on their helmets to honor the men who died risking their lives to protect people protesting their very existence in Dallas. And then you had the audacity to threaten to fine players who wore commemorative shoes to honor those who died on 9/11 after letting the spoiled, stuck up players to kneel and disrespect those 2,226 people with no punishment?

If I had any, any respect for your league and your players, it would be gone after these shenanigans, but I happened to have lost it long before this.

Do you know what the flag stands for? What the colors stand for? According to usflag.org, this is what they mean.

Red.

Red stands for hardiness and valor.

White.

White stands for purity and innocence.

Blue.

Blue stands for vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

So, Colin Kaepernick and any other sorry individual who refuses to respect our flag. As you kneel, you are going against valor. You are going against purity. You are going against perseverance. You are going against justice.

You kneel and you disrespect my cousin, my grandfathers, my great uncle, and every other man and woman who have risked their lives to defend your rights.

You knelt and disrespected the 2,226 people who died on 9/11 last Sunday when you refused to respect something that is bigger than yourself.

I’ll leave you with this song in case that these last thousand or so words didn’t quite get the point across.

This. This is what the flag stands for.

And that is what you are “speaking out” against every time you kneel.

And if you still think you can sleep at night? I suggest you buy a plane ticket out of the country and find somewhere else to live. I guarantee you’re not going to find another country where you can get paid exorbitant amounts of money and be allowed to disrespect a national symbol in such a way.

Signed,

Proud Americans Everywhere