By refusing to stand, Kaepernick impugns the good with the bad

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem and the red, white and blue has ignited a firestorm. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn recently suggested that Kaepernick take a look at the history of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” One way we can all do this is to look at the colors of the flag that inspired the song and the people who represent both.

{mosads}Red means courage, which Congress officially defined in 1782 when creating the U.S. seal. Several years later, during the War of 1812 against England, attorney Francis Scott Key was so filled with joy and relief on Sept. 14, 1814, when he saw the U.S. flag flying after the Battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, that he wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Freckled-faced Frederick Hall, age 21, was one of the soldiers who showed blood-red courage in that star-spangled battle where bombs burst in the air. Like many before and after him, Hall died after being “severely wounded, having his leg blown off by a cannon ball.”

Congress defined the color white as purity, which means motive. A good sailor, Charles Ball was asked to join the British during the War of 1812. Instead, he joined U.S. Navy Commandant Joshua Barney and fought at the Battle of Bladensburg in Maryland on Aug. 24, 1814, which was one of the events leading to the Battle of Fort McHenry and “The Star-Spangled Banner” weeks later.

Paul Jennings illustrated what it means to be watchful or vigilant, one of three meanings that Congress gave to the color blue. Jennings was the last occupant of the White House to leave, just hours before the British arrived and burned the White House following the Battle of Bladensburg. Jennings, ironically, put out the fire in the White House kitchen to make sure the president’s house didn’t catch fire during his watch.

What do these three people have in common? In addition to being patriots representing the colors of the flag, each lived during the events inspiring the national anthem. They were also African-Americans.

A runaway slave, Hall joined the U.S. Army under the name “William Williams.” No one turned him in, despite the military’s unjust ban on contracting with slaves and former slaves.

Ball chose to fight for his country even after he was kidnapped in 1805 as a freeman and taken to South Carolina as a slave. Escaping his enslavement, he showed perseverance, another definition for blue, and returned to Maryland. In 1813, Ball left a British ship filled with runaway slaves who were sailing to freedom in a British territory. Ball was at Joshua Barney’s side when the commandant was injured at the Battle of Bladensburg. “I stood at my gun, until the Commodore was shot down, when he ordered us to retreat,” Ball bravely recounted.

Jennings was a teenage slave for President James Madison. Because the Madisons had already evacuated, as the last occupant to leave the White House on Aug. 24, Jennings could have run away. Instead, he chose to be vigilant until his own safety was in jeopardy. Taking refuge at the house of a Methodist minister, Jennings was listening to a prayer when “I heard a tremendous explosion, and, rushing out, saw that the public buildings, Navy Yard, ropewalks were on fire.” Years later, Jennings became a free man.

Hall, Ball and Jennings served their country and showed patriotism despite the unjust cultural cancer of slavery infecting America at that time.

A surprising letter that I read in researching my new book, “The Burning of the White House” revealed that Francis Scott Key asked the Madisons to free one of their slaves because that slave was married to a free person who was working for Key. We don’t know their decision, which could have been documented in an unknown record book that burned in the White House. Nonetheless, Key’s request was a compassionate attempt at justice, the third meaning that Congress gave the color blue.

Back to Kaepernick. America has become black and blue the past few years, especially bruised from recent racial tension that has spilled into violence against both blacks and whites. As the NFL reported on its website, Kaepernick explains his stance this way:

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

While Kaepernick certainly has the freedom of speech to do what he’s doing and racial tension is a problem in the U.S. that needs to change, he is demonstrating what psychiatrist David Burns call magnification or the binocular trick that results from negative thinking. Similar to looking through the end of a pair of binoculars, things look bigger or smaller and present an unbalanced look at reality.

By refusing to stand for the national anthem, Kaepernick is also refusing to honor the sacrifices of African-Americans like Hall, Ball and Jennings who lived through the burning of the White House and Capitol and the Battle of Fort McHenry that gave us the national anthem in the first place.

Pointing out injustice is a civil right, but impugning the whole for a part makes the problems worse and dishonors those who have lived for the values of the red, white and blue and are doing so today.

An award-winning writer of nine books, Cook is the author of the new book, “The Burning of the White House: James and Dolley Madison and the War of 1812.” She is a former White House webmaster and national medial commentator.

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