US soccer star Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem before her team’s September 4th game in a show of solidarity with San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Rapinoe told American Soccer Now that the gesture was a “little nod to Kaepernick and everything that he’s standing for right now. “I think it’s actually pretty disgusting the way he was treated and the way that a lot of the media has covered it and made it about something that it absolutely isn’t. We need to have a more thoughtful, two-sided conversation about racial issues in this country.”
It appears that Kaepernick has started a movement with his silent protest during the national anthem during a pre-season game on August 26. Kaepernick said his "taking a knee" was to protest racial oppression and police brutality in the United States.
Meanwhile, Alabama's Birmingham News reports:
The announcer of the Friday night football game at McKenzie High School in Alabama's Butler County had something to say to those who may choose not to stand for the national anthem.
"If you don't want to stand for the national anthem, you can line up over there by the fence and let our military personnel take a few shots at you since they're taking shots for you," the announcer said at the game versus Houston County High School, according to Facebook poster Denise Crowley-Whitfield.
Crowley-Whitfield said the crowd went "crazy cheering" following the speech.
The announcer was identified as Pastor Allen Joyner, of Sweet Home Baptist Church in McKenzie, according to Joyner's relatives and friends, who also posted to Facebook and praised the statement.
Crowley-Whitfield's post was shared more than 4,700 times and received more than 50 comments, all positive, before she deleted her Facebook account on Saturday afternoon.
. . . "taking the knee" and it's my view that a lot, perhaps all, of those responsible for the reason(s) for these protests might profitably be given the opportunity to take quite another sort of knee, perhaps repeatedly, until the point, "Don't be a Richard" is, ah, driven home . . .