i had a real conversation with a true to life white woman who votes republican. and we talking ‘i may not like trump but i’m going to vote for him because i’m a republican’ republican. it was an out-of-body experience and i realized during the conversation that i primarily only have conversations with people who affirm my beliefs and values. so i went in deep, cause when is this going to happen again (and remember i got that adhd)?

‘so you got an opinion about colin kaepernick?’ see i went straight there.

‘yeah. i think he’s an idiot.’ i can’t really even describe the level of irritation she was expressing toward poor colin who sat during the national anthem at a football game (btw she’s not a football fan).

so i say, ‘what makes him an idiot?’

‘it’s disrespectful not to stand for the flag. i felt that he was being disrespectful and that’s not okay. everyone should respect the flag.’

okay, at this point i am so curious i want to crawl inside her head to look around. and i know i was staring at her like she was some kind of scientific wonder. i wanted to know more. i wanted to hear more. i mean just call me alice because i abso-fucking-lutely want to go down the rabbit hole.

‘why should everyone respect the flag? why is that important?’

‘people have died for this country. i have know families who have lost loved ones fighting in the marines, the army, the air force. we need to respect their sacrifices.’

i wanted to talk about america at war, right? i mean i really wanted to hear how much she knows about american military history and the reasons americans have fought and died while serving our country in the armed services. i mean do you realize

america has been at war 93% of the time since 1776?

america is 240 years old but has been fighting in some kind of military action for 222 years. that means that if america were a teenage girl, she’d be in an emotional impaired self-contained classroom certified as combative and incapable of developing meaningful and reciprocal relationships with others. like america would be the girl, our mothers wouldn’t allow us to hang out with and our favorite aunt would be telling us, ‘stay away from that girl. she ain’t nothing but trouble.’ but this conversation was about why colin is an idiot so…

‘is the only way to respect their service to stand during the singing of the star spangled banner?’

‘well…no,’ she said. ‘that’s not the only way but it’s what we’re suppose to do.’

‘but why are we suppose to do it? why is it important that we stand when someone sings the national anthem?’

she was a little stumped by this question and it took her a moment to respond. when she did respond it came out like, ‘well maybe i’m too white to understand. i just think we should stand.’

‘but isn’t that the point to get people to think about why,’ i knew i was pushing but i just couldn’t help it…i had to know so i say, ‘what if you knew timothy mcveigh stood every time the national anthem was played? would he be a patriot?’

‘NO!’ she exclaimed disgusted. ‘TIMOTHY MCVEIGH WAS A MURDERER!’

‘ah…but even though he was a murdered, his patriotism wasn’t questioned.’ i could hear the wheels turning in her head.

‘but we killed timothy mcveigh. he paid for his crime.’

‘ah…timothy mcveigh paid for his crime. he was held accountable.’ i mulled over my next point. ‘but police officers who have killed american citizens on video tape have not been held accountable. they have not paid for their crimes. but colin kaepernick is an idiot because he wouldn’t stand during a song? we’ve got our priorities completely out of whack.’

when i heard that colin kaepernick hadn’t stood when the national anthem was sung at a 49er’s football game, i thought, ‘should i wash my colored clothes tonight or leave that for wednesday? like can we make it a couple more days off these clean but not yet folded white clothes?’

i thought those thoughts because in the great scheme of all things…colin kaepernick not standing during the star spangled banner means less to me than my son having clean underwear. i believe it also means less than that to others. and yet for the last several days his sitting down is what has taken over the national conversation. the fact that one man sat down at a football game when the star spangled banner was sung has taken over the national conversation in an election year with a vacant seat remaining open on the supreme court.

deborah pearl. on saturday, august 27th she was driving to work when a white man ran a red light and hit her car. when she got out of her car to inspect the damage he got of his car and opened fire. he killed her. she was going to work.

meanwhile, the budget for defending governor snyder and others charged with criminal wrongdoing in the flint water crisis has reached $7.9 million. yet residents of flint, michigan are still boiling water.

and if you thought that tpp was a misprint for toilet paper, you are missing the boat big time. tpp stands for trans-pacific partnership. it is a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. people are pissed about tpp, but not enough even know about it to be pissed.

there are so many things that american could and should be talking about this week. schools have opened their doors in the midst of the largest teacher shortage ever. but we’re not talking about it. we’re not talking about anything that actually matters. not even laundry. instead we’re up in arms because one man decided to sit and folk are actually fighting with family members because of it.

we’ve got to get our priorities together especially as it relates to our dirty laundry.