NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick explains why he sat during national anthem

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

The 49ers issued a statement about Kaepernick's decision: "The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem."

Is he using protest to deflect from his performance on the field? A way of possibly coercing his team into not releasing him, perhaps? Me thinks thou are insincere.

A Kaepernick Instagram

"Town orders U.S. flags removed from fire trucks"

USA Today:  Arlington (NY) Fire Chief Tory Gallante was directed by the Board of Fire Commissioners to remove the flags from the backs of the trucks during Monday's meeting. He declined to comment on specifics of why the decision was made but said he is “very disappointed with their direction.”

Arlington Fire Commissioner Chairman Jim Beretta said the board majority feel the flags are a "liability during normal operations for our people and other motorists," and that the board had not been consulted before the flags were mounted

Union President Joseph Tarquinio said he's disappointed in the board's direction, but "if we had to take them down, they had to be taken down the right way. At the time when the country needs unity, to do something like this ... it's next to flag-burning in my mind."

Online, reaction varied. Hundreds of people expressed outrage at the decision. Others said the display, while patriotic, violated U.S. flag code. Some said there are bigger issues to worry about and that displaying — or not displaying — an American flag does not make one person more patriotic than another.

flag, Astronauts on the Moon

The large garage door lifted and I walked under it and out like a king except onto an alley facing a parking lot and right off caught glimpse of little brown bunny tucking under a parked vehicle woefully displaced in this urban parking lot. At nine thirty looked up to a blue sky and saw the moon up there like a tiny round cloud just waiting to be noticed by somebody. A woman walking in front of me noticed. "Hey, look at the moon." 

So I did. 

Visitors to the U.S. remark, "Boy, they sure do like their flag. And we do. But not any more than the person saying that. It's just they haven't noticed the same thing in their own country. And if that were uniquely true about Americans as they suppose then these balconies would be covered with flags, and you see only one. Right in the middle. 

My sky. I feel so ensconced. 

I decided to read a book about when America was great. Won't take long, it's a pop-up book.

When was America ever great? A provocative unhappy person asked that on Twitter. 

We could say, maybe back in 1979 when this book was published. When the country was united in a single project. Except for the people against the project, the people who protested spending all that money on space, mostly Democrats,  and insisted better use can be made of it right here and who considered the entire program one gigantic corporate welfare project on an industrial scale. Back when civil rights was a wrenching national issue. When feminism really took hold. Back when free sex opened the door to AIDS. Back then when both parents working and latchkey kids became the norm, during that period of lynchings and riots and anti-war unrest. The golden years when America was great. A nostalgia developed for those less trying times.  

A time when even pop-up books were simple. V-mechanism, V-mechanism, V-mechanism. Except for the pod. We could make this whole book easily in our first class. I'm not knocking it, I'm describing it and encouraging your own abilities.

I saw Obama posters in the windows one time but never any American flags. The business across the street will have a whole block with a line of American flags in a row, but not on the people's balconies. 

kids at state capitol

My USPS

I bought an American flag. Huzzah! My first flag of my very own. Jingoistic innit, but I don't care. This one; a pole, a bracket, a little eagle, nylon for outside, everything. I'm set. It will be the flappiest flag around here.



Placed the order May 16th for the holiday May 26, and I do realize that is cutting it close. This might not work. I know that going in and I'll have only myself to blame if it does not arrive in time. Oh well, there is always July 4th and that is a better holiday anyway.



The order is processed more rapidly than I expected and confirmed shipped the next day and I tingle with a spark of faint hope of the chance that my flag could arrive on time. Although the document does not say, so I do not know how the package is shipped.



I expect a knock on the door any day after this or a call from the office downstairs. USPS is usually fast. The ladies in the office are expecting it too because I tell them my plan and ask for their help intercepting. I keep in touch each day. They got my back. They like me because I feed them all the time.

This morning an email from USPS saying they tried to deliver but failed, but I know, we know that is nonsense. If they tried it would be here.



The document is titled "one day shipping" Ha! The vendor did not get what he paid for. Dated the 24th, it notes they received the package the 20th, a mere 4 days after the order was placed and 4 days previous to the one day shipping notification, the last day possible to make it time for the holiday. They have a strange calculation for days.

But here is the thing. The notification says, "print your label and show it in the nearest post office to get my package."

So much presumption in one little sentence; that I have a printer, that it works reliably, that I know where the Post Office is, that I have transportation to get there, or that I can walk to it.

But when I do try to go along with their demands and print the label the click through I get a 404 error page and the address ends in .it for Italy. I think. Maybe "it" means something else. I do not know for sure They give me no information at all. Do this: no information.

http://www.computerworldconsulting.it/lang.php?er=wxyUuTibr4fqqbq7RysaUmlX%252BLDjfgXwkW0U%252FalEwxQ%253D



So I did go to the Post Office near my house. I do have a printer that works but nothing to print, I do have transportation and I can walk. So their presumptions turn out to be right, but how would they know that? I figured my I.D. will just have to do. And they are closed, just after noon. Although the mailman showed up today he did not bring my package with him. And that makes me sad, and disgusted, and cross, and disappointed all at the same time. All for a flag. So now when it does come, or when I go back to get it after the holiday, I will most likely feel only resentment. And when July 4th comes I'll go, "pfffft" stupid flag.

But I did get a wonderful deal, a $75.00 flag for $25.00. Not bad, eh?  I should just shut up and appreciate the good things that are offered, but I am human with emotions and cannot always be so reasoned as that.