On your feet or on your knees...

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and many issues are not black and white. Often, both sides need to show tolerance and understanding, and compromise needs to be reached. We sometimes refuse to see the other side of things, or take into account the circumstances and motivating factors that lead someone to an opposing viewpoint.
That said, if you are against the players protesting by taking a knee during the national anthem at football games, you are just wrong. You have been played. And I know, telling people that they are wrong will not change their minds or make them come over to your way of thinking, but so be it. If you can't see how wrong you are already, nothing I can say will change your mind. You have been lied to, and manipulated, and you gleefully swallowed all the false indignation and arrogance. At best, there are serious racial undertones in your decision, and blatant racism in the people who led you to it.
You don't care, though. You are not self aware, you are being petty and stubborn, and you are clinging to very flimsy justifications for your disgustingly racist and unpatriotic position. The garbage you have been fed about how this protest disrespects veterans or police officers is so transparent that it is laughable. That has nothing to do with it. If you or someone you know is or was a veteran, they fought for that very right to protest. I can understand how easy it is for those lies to trigger emotional responses in you, but you can't go around reacting to base emotion and letting it cloud your judgment. These players are in no way disrespecting you or your loved ones. That's simply propaganda, designed to manipulate your feelings.If you are a cop, or know a cop, you should be outraged at all the instances where police officers kill unarmed citizens. They a are abusing their position and harming those very citizens they swore to protect.
This wacky and reactionary outrage about disrespecting a flag is ludicrous. Patriotism is not waving a flag. Patriotism is standing up for what that flag symbolizes, no matter what scorn or derision or hardship it causes you. That is what these players are doing.
If you can't see that, if you side with blind hate and mock indignation over something that really has no affect on you whatsoever, I don't know what to tell you, besides that you are dead wrong. Your life must be empty, and you must be bitter and looking for something to lash out at rather than look inward to fix it. That's all I can figure, because there is no earthly reason why it should bother you for one second whether another human being kneels or stands during a meaningless song sung at a meaningless sporting event. You are trying to take away an important tool for people of color to express themselves and right a serious wrong in this country. Sadly, that comes as no surprise, because people like you have been helping to take away minority's rights for centuries. You are the unwitting tool of powerful men who want to divide this country, who resent anyone who isn't as white or pure or rich as they are. They resent you, but you're just too willfully ignorant to see it.
The good news is, people are realizing that, and calling those in power out on their lies. There is an awakening happening, it's been happening for decades, and isn't slowing down. The internet, and people speaking their minds and pointing out injustice has accelerated it, in fact. Younger people are rejecting racism, along with a bunch of other horrible and outdated fears and oppression. People like you, who cling to backwards and antiquated ideals, are dying out. True, there will always be people like you, who can't be bothered to do a little bit of work, to understand the issues, to grow and change and evolve. There will always be people ready to join the mob, and rally against reason and enlightenment, simply because it frightens them. It is easier to chant slogans and be led by your fears and prejudices than it is to face your own demons, to blame others and find convoluted motivations to distract yourself from your own faults. But you are squarely in the minority.
The people who think like you and who manipulate you will be driven from power, a little more every year. It won't be easy. It won't happen overnight. But it will happen, mark my words. This current administration, and the wave of racism and ignorance they ushered in, has already broken, and is receding back to the filthy sea it came from. It hasn't even left a high water mark, it just fizzled out halfway up the beach. It did serve to wake up the last segment of decent people who didn't want to admit that a third of their fellow populace were racist and intolerant. But now you have all crept out into the light, and there's no denying it. You have exposed yourselves, and you will be neutralized. In the voting booth, through the justice system, and by an enlightened world that refuses to tolerate your bullshit. So you can change, or you can be ground under, the choice is yours. You might think you have won this battle, but the more you try to oppress and control people, the harder they will fight back and rebel, a simple lesson no one seems to learn. People often gloat when they win the battle, only to be shocked when they lose the war. You have the freedom to choose which side you're on, but that choice comes with consequences. Be prepared for them.