San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem before the first preseason game of the 2016 season in August. Since that time a very popular debate has been raging across all sports that spans among all age groups and all ethnicities.

It all started with Kaepernick’s protest, which wasn’t noticed until he was going to play for the first time of the season in the third game of the preseason. He hadn’t played before that because of an injury suffered back in the 2015 season.

When this first broke out, it was just one player taking a stand for what he believed was right. Then, the movement exploded and people all over the country of all ages, and all ethnic groups joined in and it became a national movement.

The cause for the movement according to Kaepernick is that he doesn’t want to pay respect to the flag of a country that doesn’t protect minorities. He also said that he won’t stand until the issues are resolved.

This has sparked a lot of interest and many opinions are being formed of this movement and of Kaepernick himself. At Milford High School, many believe his protest during the anthem is disrespectful to all those who died for that flag.

“I lose a little respect for them if all [players] do is kneel, but nothing else to back up their cause,” senior Varsity football player Billy Cawthorne said,

Another member of this major protest is doing just that. Denver Broncos Linebacker Brandon Marshall is actually talking to Denver Police officers to see what can be done to solve this issue, and he is even going to take the chance to ride along with a police officer and go through their training simulator, while also saying that he will donate $300 for every tackle that he makes this season and donate it to provide awareness for social issues such as this and other services throughout the community.

Another question is if these protests are really changing anything in the country.

“In a way, the players are trying to show the wrongs in the country and in the world, but they aren’t really changing many people’s minds who already had set views on the topic,”Freshman Max Poser said.

Some citizens believe that players should be punished for this act by being benched or even kicked off of their teams because of the disrespect to many fans. What should happen to athletes that participate?  “Probably nothing,” said Cawthorne. “They’re not doing anything wrong. This shows the good parts of America in that they have the right to protest for what they believe in.”

An underlooked aspect of this protest has been what has become of its significant growth in size and attention it’s received. Multiple athletes, including Kaepernick and Marshall, have said that they have received death threats from people for their part in the protest.

This is turning into a very dangerous situation. Security is threatening not to protect these athletes. For example, the Santa Clara Police Officer’s Association have threatened multiple times to stop working home games for the San Francisco 49ers due to Kaepernick’s protest according to CBS Sports. Also, there has even been a 10 year old who kneeled during the anthem that has received death threats because of it. 

This protest affects all people, not just African-Americans. There are children out there that look up to professional athletes such as Kaepernick that are kneeling during the national anthem when they hear it without really understanding the issues. They just think it is cool because of who they see doing it.

Shouldn’t kids be taught how to act when the national anthem plays in the right manner?

“While I do believe that they set a poor example and they should set the right example, which would be not to kneel, they have their reasons for their protest so I can accept that,”Poser said. It would be logical to believe that parents would want to have their children be respectful of our flag and what it is supposed to represent.

As can be seen clearly from this issue, there are a lot of things that America needs to work on as a country. In order to solve these issues, there needs to be a healthy dialogue between all parties and not just protests that can be harmful to everyone involved.

This could either go away in the near future and everyone will forget about it or it will continue to rage on and spark outburst and negative feelings on both sides of the spectrum. After all, opinions are strong on both sides.

Some people love Kaepernick for him taking a stand, while others not so much. This other side can be summed up very shortly in this statement by Cawthorne. “I’m not going out to buy a Colin Kaepernick jersey anytime soon, that’s for sure.”