A woman from Longview, Texas, who is a direct descendant of Francis Scott Key — yes, the man who wrote the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" — has slammed Colin Kaepernick for his protest of the national anthem.
Shirley Isham, a verified great-great-great-granddaughter of Key, said “Kaepernick does not do himself any honor” by kneeling through the national anthem and maintains that “it’s a disservice to him.”
"When I hear [the anthem], I'm completely overwhelmed with emotion, because that song, it represents this country and the men and women who died for this country," she said, according to KLTV. "I watched the Olympics, watched them get up on the podium, put their hands over their heart and the anthem played for them. And I stood up with my hand over my heart and I applauded. That's how proud I was of them."
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She added that Kaepernick's protest "offends me. I know it doesn’t offend a lot of people, [but] it offends me because it’s a personal thing. Because of who wrote it."
Isham elaborated in another interview with USA Today Sports.
“It just broke my heart to think that someone that gets so much money for playing a ball game, who is half black, half white, would do this,” she said. “So many of his black race are oppressed, but it’s not by the whites, it’s by their own people. Look who their leaders are, and the president. Has [Barack Obama] done anything for these people?”
She continued, "It’s very painful for me. It just blows my mind that somebody like [Kaepernick] would do what he does to dishonor the flag of this country and the national anthem when we have young men and women overseas fighting for this county, people that have died for this country.”
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