So, Colin Kaepernick (and I don't know squat about American football, barely enough to tell you he is a quarterback and he has been demoted to second-string and he is a 49er) decides he is going to sit during the national anthem.

There was a brouhaha. And Kaepernick defended his decision, doubling down by saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that there are many people who cannot enjoy the "American Dream," and until there is "change" (presumably government action to address police brutality) well, he will not rise and stand with his teammates during the Star Spangled Banner.

I don't want to weigh in on the rightness or wrongness of Colin Kaepernick's decision to not stand for the singing of the National Anthem. What I do want to pass judgment on has to do with this commentary:

Whatever you believe about the ethics of sitting down, don't tell me the easy thing to do would be to stand silently with one's teammates.

I couldn't disagree with more.

Sure, Colin Kaepernick may have made a political statement by not rising for the signing of his National Anthem, and it may very well be an effective one in terms of his stated goal of "raising awareness."

But don't tell me it was the hardest thing he could have done.

Don't tell me he chose NOT to do the easiest thing.

Don't tell me that.

This is such a throwaway statement, "the easy thing to do..." What kind of culture finds itself at such a precipice of self-centredness, the point where it wholesale disregards the fortitude of someone who remains silent, not because they accede 100% to a bundle of government policies but because there is something called respect. There is something called sacrifice.

How do you know when you have hit peak narcissism? When silence is assumed to be weakness.