A brief against a secular canonization.

Colin Kaepernick was blackballed from the NFL in part because of his protests against police brutality--that is true.

But let's remember that he didn't just take a knee during the national anthem.

He is also a committed leftist who has gone far beyond protesting police brutality:

Praising honest-to-God gulag-running communists;

In a proof-texting fail, deriding the entire nation on the 4th of July;*

Prompting the cancellation of Nike sneakers with the American flag (like the NBA, he has nothing to say about Chinese gulags);**

Silently endorsing the accusation that another NFL player is an "Uncle Tom;" and

Comparing himself to a mutilated slave from "Roots."

He is an American who can protest as he likes. And his Nike contract gives him considerable resources, influence and a bright spotlight. Likewise, other Americans are free to notice and remark that his complaint has significantly evolved past police brutality, and is aimed at the legitimacy of the nation itself.

*Note: Frederick Douglass is one of the most impressive men our nation has ever produced. The son of his owner (repeat that until it gets through your head), he taught himself to read. His account of his life as a slave is rub-your-nose-in-it tough, and his words have the ring of Isaiah or Jeremiah thundering against the sins of a hypocritical people who knew better. His harsh indictment of the loudly-Christian slave owners who mistreated their chattel compared to the relative decency of the agnostic who never raised his voice to Douglass provoked a storm, but it was entirely fair.

Yes, the 4th of July speech was and still is lacerating, as is much of his impressive body of work. It stung when I first heard it at the Museum of African-American History in Detroit. Frankly, this is as it should be.

But when one reads Douglass, his unmistakable love of the country despite its gruesome failures is ever-present. And it is impossible to miss that love and his unshakeable belief that America could be better. Only someone ignorant or a shameless proof-texter would use Douglass in any other way.

** Note: I don't buy overpriced sweatshop shoes anyway. But when the Chinese Reich's emblem is ok with Nike and CK, I can only roll my eyes.