It truly saddens me to see an American football player show such disrespect for a country that has provided him with exceptional opportunities. I really don’t care if he has the right to protest or not, it is just awful that he chose to create divisiveness in a sport that has traditionally represented unity. His protest has created more division and mindless “copycats” are already following his terrible example and teaching our youth to hate America.
Colin is in an influential position where he truly can make an impression on impressionable minds and I think he blew it, but we can help him out by turning his poor example into a fantastic teachable moment. People that have been given much truly have much responsibility, but they must be honest and think things through so they don’t make things worse. I think our country is obsessed with race these days and it’s truly sad and disappointing.
If we are going to create “copy cats”, let’s look at Colin’s situation a bit more closely and copy the parts of his life that are worthy of copying. Colin was given up for adoption by his 19-year-old biological mother and given to a very loving family that raised him and gave him every opportunity to succeed and excel. Colin’s biological father left his mother to decide on the fate of their child by herself. According to Colin’s biological mother, his father denies him until this day. I don’t pretend to know all the details about why his mother gave him up, but she made her decision and her child lived and thrived. His biological mother searched and found a great family that was willing to adopt her son. She made the very tough decision to give her baby up. She more than likely was scared and confused, but despite all that, she made the right decision to give her child a chance at life. There was no way of knowing how Colin would turn out or what the future held for him, but she did indeed choose life.
Colin has a wonderful opportunity in his position of influence to promote adoption instead of abortion, but he chooses to blame cops for societal woes. Why not start a discussion about why some women are choosing to abort their “inconvenient child” instead of choosing adoption? Why not state the “bottom line” and tell our children they can avoid having to make these difficult decisions by choosing to wait until they are married and committed to each other to have sex in the first place?
An able-bodied man and woman in a committed relationship for a lifetime are perfectly capable and usually motivated to figure out how to care for a child together! We can teach and educate our children, no matter what color they are to make the right choices. Why are we always pointing fingers at someone else? Why not start to teach kids the good stuff like personal responsibility? Make good choices in the first place.
I don’t pretend to know everything going on in Colin’s head, but from my point of view, he is still immature. He clearly was taught to hate America and really doesn’t understand what America truly represents. This overgrown child needs to be educated like so many Americans truly do. He called attention to himself, so it’s fair to use him as an example, right? So let’s do just that and look at the positives in the situation. Colin is a very fortunate man, raised by a wonderful family. His situation could have been much different if people made different decisions for him.
If we really want to be honest, we have to ask ourselves who really abandoned him and who chose life for him? Unfortunately, the evidence would seem to point to his biological father who was not man enough to take care of his own child. That seems like a great place to start a discussion. What a wonderful opportunity Colin could have to make a difference if he’d only be honest and start there?
He can truly use his personal experience and position of influence to help teach and encourage our youth to make better choices. The choices we make today most certainly effect our future and the future of our country. Nobody lives in a bubble. Let’s start teaching that again.
photo credit: by Brook Ward; Kaepernick via photopin (license)
