It started on August 26^th. It has since spread nationwide, to sports fields and schools throughout the land of the free. From Virginia to Minnesota, Kentucky to California, high school football players across the country are kneeling to protest the “racial injustice” that their leader believes he personifies. Colin Kaepernick has displayed complete disregard and ultimate disrespect for the men and women who have fought and died so that he may even be allowed to play football. He embodies the complete hypocrisy that he claims his movement is attempting to end. The people that are paying his $114 million salary are the very people that he claims are ‘oppressing’ him. Kaepernick lacks appreciation for the very country that has given him the tools to succeed. We recognize and understand his right to do this, but that does not mean that we condone it. Standing up for the national anthem salutes and honors those who have risked their lives so that we may live ours. We, as a Torch staff, take a stand on sitting.