USWNT Star Kneels With Kaepernick

“USWNT Star Kneels With Kaepernick.” It had more meaning before unlocking the USWNT acronym. Women’s soccer. Megan Rapinoe took a knee during the Star Spangled Banner in support of Colin Kaepernick before her Seattle Reign versus Chicago Red Stars match. It’s unclear how the nineteen people in attendance reacted, but some said, unclear. 

Rapinoe noted how unfairly Kaepernick has been treated since taking his Black Lives Matter stand. Because Rapinoe made the unnecessary step of coming out as a lesbian last year, she reflexively tied the Kaepernick protest back into LGBT rights:

And quite honestly, being gay, I have stood with my hand over my heart during the national anthem and felt like I haven’t had my liberties protected, so I can absolutely sympathize with that feeling.

Nobody suffers more in this nation than lesbian professional athletes with fat Nike and Samsung endorsement deals.

If everybody who ever felt shit upon stopped standing for the National Anthem, everybody would be sitting. Which means we could end the inane practice of pretending women’s soccer games are sacred patriotic events. Any sporting event really. Why am I taking a break from shotgunning beers and screaming uneducated complaints about offensive schemes to salute the glory of my nation? Get my non-college graduated Big Twelve beef out there to beat the crap out of each other for my amusement.

Veterans don’t need Colin Kaepernick’s standing for the National Anthem looking glum and benched. They need promised but largely unfulfilled healthcare and veteran benefits and decent jobs. They might like to know that fewer active duty will be sent off to shitty, endless, military interventions on the whim of executives working out their political science theses. And maybe NFL tickets to see teams better than the 49ers. The quicker we stop pretending sporting event National Anthems and women’s soccer are important things, the faster we heal.

_{Photo credit: CNN}