Kaepernick and Patriotism

There is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty is the child of intelligence. The history of man is simply the history of slavery, of injustice and brutality, together with the means by which he has, through the dead and desolate years, slowly and painfully advanced. 

 ~ Robert Ingersoll

Considering the quote above by Ingersoll, objectively ask yourself these questions: 

What race of people has benefited from slavery, injustice and brutality toward its fellow brethren? 

Who has the most to lose if there's no more brutality, if there's equal justice for all?

It's crass, callous and absurdly indifferent to suggest that since the vile, despicable institution of slavery ended 151 years ago, African Americans should be OK and squarely on board with the rah-rah patriotism. 

Europeans 'legalized' inhumane treatment of black people lasted 245 years. The official end of slavery occurred on December 6, 1865 with the ratification of the 13th amendment. Free labor ended in 1865, but this newfound 'freedom' for blacks led to sharecropping and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Just eighteen days later, on December 24, 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee, a group of Confederate veterans convened to form a secret society, christened, the "Ku Klux Klan." The KKK rapidly grew from a secret social fraternity to a paramilitary force bent on reversing the federal government's progressive Reconstruction Era-activities in the South, especially policies that elevated the rights of the African American population.

Free labor and profit alone affords its beneficiaries to reap the financial boon for the next several generations. While the unwilling participants and their descendants have inherited a macabre religion called Christianity (along with all its sublime and malevolently destructive forces) and psychological damage that would have annihilated a lesser race of people.

The African American race, the human race in general, if I may borrow a line from "The Lion King" .. "You [We] are more than what you [we] have become!"

We can do better - for the survival of the human species... WE MUST DO BETTER.

Foremost on our collective agenda, as JFK stated, "Mankind must put an end to war, before war puts an end to mankind."