Southeast Missouri Congressman Jason Smith is bashing Nike for pulling the plug on plans to launch sneakers with a U.S. flag from the American Revolution and for former NFL player Colin Kaepernick getting involved. The company says it stopped distributing the shoe because it could unintentionally offend and detract from the nation’s July 4th holiday.
Missouri Republican Congressman Jason Smith (Image courtesy of KFVS-TV)
In a weekly newsletter from Smith, he says the political sensitivity of today has “simply gone too far” and “we already know of Kaepernick’s disgust for the American flag.” Smith, a Republican from Salem, goes on to say America should not reward companies with tax dollars who “use the American capitalist system to achieve billions in profits, but then disown the same history of a country which allowed them to succeed.”
“Maybe Colin Kaepernick should have been offended that Nike wasn’t sending any of the profits to the millions of brave American service members and their families that sacrificed over the past 243 years defending our flag,” says Smith. “He instead took issue with the display of the original American flag developed by Betsy Ross, one of the great women in American History. A flag which stands for rebellion against tyranny, of freedom, of revolution, and of individual rights and liberty.”
Kaepernick is known for kneeling during the National Anthem at NFL games to protest against racial injustice.
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