I’m writing today to comment on the Monday opinion column by Karen E. Quinones Miller “Why I’m boycotting the NFL.”
You see I’m also boycotting the NFL but for entirely different reasons, and I do this with mixed emotions. It is estimated that 1.1 million men and women since 1776 have died serving under the flag of this great nation, untold millions of citizens have served under that flag. Now we know that this great nation is not perfect, no nation or country is, everyone realizes we have problems as we work to resolve those problems. At the beginning of every NFL football game the announcer states “please rise and remove your hats as we honor America and the men and women who are serving to protect it.” Thus, the basis for my boycotting the NFL. If you cannot stand for the National Anthem to honor the men and women then I don’t have to sit to watch you play a child’s game. Please look up the history of the National Anthem, then you would understand why we stand.
Now most pundits are saying that the protest is about Colin Kaepernick his skin color and his refusal to stand, and that is why he is unemployed today as a NFL quarterback. He’s unemployed because he doesn’t have the talent, not because of the color his skin or that he doesn’t stand for the National Anthem. As a 20-year veteran of the Army, I served so he could kneel, I don’t like it, but it’s his right that we have fought and died for, it’s your right to kneel and it’s my right not to watch.
James A. Reid,
Juneau