(Editors note: Jeff Roorda is the author of "The War on Police: How the Ferguson Effect is Making America Unsafe." Released by WND Books in late 2016, "The War on Police" is a cop's-eye view of one of the most tumultuous times in recent history for law enforcement.)
Thank you, Colin Kaepernick. I mean it! Thank you for providing a rare dose of clarity.
Watching the red glare of Molotov cocktails over the past two years in Ferguson, Baltimore, Milwaukee and other ravaged American cities can leave us all feeling a bit hazy, wondering what we're fighting about. You've reminded us exactly what this perilous fight is all about: anti-Americanism.
The war on police to which we've borne witness since 2014 is – as I've always said – a proxy war. This bloody insurrection is not so much about the hatred of police as it is the hatred of America. Cops are simply the forward rampart in any conflict where the enemies of America are domestic. Never so much as this war, though.
I'm not saying, by the way, that everyone who has taken to the streets is anti-American. People have a right to demand answers and a right to be heard, even when they are so clearly wrong as those who call cops who defend themselves against murderous attackers, "killers."
TRENDING: Greatest Show on Earth: The Hur report hearing
But everyone who punched, kicked, spit on, threw bricks at, shot at or committed any act of violence against the police is absolutely un-American. So are those who burned our star-spangled banner. So are those who provoked, promoted or praised any of these acts. And so is Colin Kaepernick. Irrefutably so.
Now don't get me wrong. Kaepernick hates cops, too. The mass media would never report this, but Kaepernick donned socks at NFL training camp that callously depicted cartoon pigs in police hats. Of course, there were no real consequences for Kaepernick because the NFL promotes anti-police hatred, which translates into anti-American hatred.
Don't be fooled by the ad campaigns that refer to NFL football as "America's Game." If it ever was America's game, it certainly isn't now. I'll remind you that this is the same league that defended Beyonce's despicable anti-police halftime spectacle. It's also the same league that refused to allow the Dallas Cowboys to wear a helmet decal honoring the police who were assassinated in Dallas. The NFL says it doesn't allow non-uniform accoutrements but it has looked the other way on uniform accessories bearing fact-free contrivances like "hands up, don't shoot" and "I can't breathe." Kaepernick's hatemongering socks got the same treatment from the NFL as will his unpatriotic exhibition during the national anthem.
It's not that the NFL embraces this brand of anti-Americanism. It's merely that it is afraid to do anything about it because it is easier to pander to the small group of America-haters than it is to stand in defense of the home of the brave or the flag that flies over it.
Kaepernick is a special sort of treasonist, though, one whose hypocrisy is as boundless as our western frontier. Literally, a poster child for why this country is indisputably the land of opportunity, this spoiled punk still can't conceal his contempt for a country that has given him everything. Where else in the world could a biracial orphan abandoned by his birth parents be embraced in the loving arms of white adoptive parents, get a top-notch education and enjoy the opportunity to earn millions of dollars because he has a modicum of athletic talent?
Nowhere.
But we do, as I say, owe a debt to Kaepernick and others who are unable to secrete their true cause. This country is not perfect, but it has an unbridled capacity to constantly better itself. Through war and natural disasters and financial calamity, through slavery and Jim Crow laws and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, people who believe in what this nation stands for – people of every creed and color – have joined together to overcome our darkest hours. In every instance, people who love this country have loved it enough to make it better.
But that's not Colin Kaepernick. That's not any of these America-hating, flag-despising traitors to whom political correctness has given rise and voice.
This is America – the land of the free. Kaepernick has the right to freely express his opinion and to openly display his disdain for our broad stripes and bright stars. But I, too, have a right to express my opinion about his seditious act. And you should, too. America will make it through this ugly chapter in history and be better for it. We will again survive to see the dawn's early light – but only if those of us who love her stand against those who hate her.