Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep…
– Rudyard Kipling, “Tommy”

Gratitude is perhaps the most positive of emotions, and ingratitude the most negative. Ingratitude motivates us to disrespect those persons and institutions that have helped us the most, and to which we owe everything. Ingratitude enables us to believe that everything good came to us as a result of our own sterling qualities, while everything bad was a result of racism, or bigotry, or whatever. As a result, no matter how lucky we are, we can still wallow in the feelings of victimhood and self-righteousness.
The National Anthem.
San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick announced that we would refuse to stand for the National Anthem because, he said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
The mixed-race millionaire and popular idol believes that his job is not to a role model of success for minority young people, but to raise their consciousness to racism. Where did he learn this? Not from his white adoptive parents, who took pains to teach him pride in his ethnic heritage. Not from his own life, which has been incredibly blessed.
No, I believe he learned his bitterness in the university, where leftist professors filled his head with Marxist jargon. Marx published “Das Kapital” in 1867 and the “Communist Manifesto” in 1888, but those who swallow its notions call themselves “progressive.” How it is “progressive” to move backwards a century and a half to ideas that have been disproved? They don’t say.
Of course, Kaepernick probably listened to Democratic politicians echoing the propaganda of Black Lives Matter. Serving as a positive role model of success was not enough for him. But protesting was his right under the First Amendment, was it not? Yes, but what about respect – respect for those who died or lost limbs fighting for that flag, and for those who try to stand in their wheelchairs for that anthem?
But what if a player showed up wearing a “Make America great again” cap, or a Trump button, or even an “All lives matter” T-shirt? Imagine the uproar. There would be boycotts of 49ers games. There would be calls for his firing. There would be fans throwing trash onto the field.
Oh yes, the First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression. It guarantees freedom to run around with Mexican flags in an American high school – but not to wear American flag T-shirts. It guarantees the right to publicly disrespect the National Anthem – but not to wear a pro-Trump cap. You see, the First Amendment has limits – limits set by the leftist “elite.”
Kaepernick could have served as an excellent role model himself – a mixed-race kid adopted by a white couple, then achieving great success by his own efforts. But apparently he chose his own role model – Michael Brown, the 285-pound, 6 foot 5 inch “gentle giant” strong-arm robber of a skinny Arab shopkeeper and attacker of a police officer. Whom we choose as a role model says a lot about us.
Are the National Anthem and the flag symbols of racism? Only to one steeped in leftism. In fact, they are the symbols of the one-third of a million white men and boys who died in the Civil War to end slavery. They are symbols of all those who fought and died to end Nazi tyranny and Japanese imperialism. One who does not understand that is both ungrateful and uneducated.
In refusing to stand for the National Anthem, Colin Kaepernick is expressing hostility not toward racism, or even toward American racism, but toward America itself – the source of his acceptance and good fortune. That is the very essence of ingratitude.
The flag.
Five students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California were threatened with suspension and sent home. Did they curse their teacher? Did they carry weapons? Did they wear their pants down around their knees? Did they wear T-shirts glorifying mass-murderer Ché Guevara?
No, they wore T-shirts showing the American flag. But they did this on Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday commemorating the Battle of Puebla, in which Mexicans defeated the invading French in 1862. And what did the ACLU, which defended students’ “right” to wear T-shirts proclaiming “big pecker,” say here? Nothing at all.
A Latino − excuse me, Latina − student declared, “I think they should apologize ’cause it is a Mexican heritage day. We don’t deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn’t do that on Fourth of July.” Her knowledge of her Mexican heritage does not include the fact that Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day, which is September 16, not May 5. In fact, in Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is a minor holiday, unlike Mexican Independence Day.
“Multiculturalism” does not mean actual knowledge of other cultures or languages − or even of one’s own. It means trashing American values.
Later, about 200 Latino students walked out of class, waving Mexican flags and demanding “respect and unity.” Respect for what − narcissism and ingratitude? Unity with whom − people whose primary loyalty is to a foreign nation?
The students acted as if they were not Mexican Americans, but Mexicans living in what is temporarily America. They were taught that immigrants need not adapt to their new nation, but the nation must adapt to them. This reverses the philosophy of the public schools, which for over a century successfully Americanized the children of immigrants. But no more. Now we are not Americanizing our own children, much less the children of immigrants.
If the school insisted on observing Cinco de Mayo, it could have allowed students to display both American and Mexican flags. You know, the way marchers on Saint Patrick’s Day carry both American and Irish flags. Isn’t the intention to show that one can honor an ethnic heritage and still be a loyal American?
Oh wait, maybe that isn’t the intention.
Ingratitude is a really enjoyable pastime. It enables us to feel good about ourselves while defaming our political enemies. It allows us to feel morally superior while hurling the vilest insults at anyone who holds a different opinion. It motivates us to insult the very flag and National Anthem that exemplify our freedom to express ourselves. Where else can you get a deal like that?
As I read the story of Colin Kaepernick, it seemed oddly familiar. A biracial child is abandoned by his black father. Despite this, the boy idealizes the father and identifies as black. The boy is raised in comfortable circumstances and given a college education. He takes advantage of his opportunities, and through his own talents rises to a leadership position. Nevertheless, he resents the homeland that provided those opportunities, emphasizes its failings rather than its successes, and shows his resentment by disrespecting its flag and its National Anthem.
Oh wait, now I remember where I heard that before.

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