Gold Star Mom Teaches Kaepernick a Lesson on Sacrifice: 'My Son Died for $14,000 a Year'
A Gold Star mother lambasted Colin Kaepernick in a Fourth of July speech where she contrasted her late son, Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Phoenix-Jacob Levy, who gave everything for his country, with the former quarterback, who’s a millionaire.
Kaepernick, who ignited the trend of athletes protesting the national anthem by refusing to stand for”The Star-Spangled Banner,” has been in the news recently after it was revealed that Nike recalled a patriotic shoe with a Betsy Ross-theme American flag on it after Kaepernick, anointed by Nike as the face of one of its ad campaigns, objected.
Speaking at Thursday’s “Rally for Freedom,” Levy’s mother, Amanda Jacobs, talked about the former athlete, according to The Daily Wire.
“When I look at this country today and I tell people, and I’ve wanted to say this loud so many times, Colin Kaepernick was getting paid $14 million dollars a year to throw a ball,” Jacobs said.
“My son died for $14,000 a year and he’s given more than any football player, any athlete, has ever given.”
Gold Star Mom Amanda Jacobs shared a powerful message yesterday to honor her son, fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Phoenix-Jacob Levy, at the Rally for Freedom in Washington, DC. At age 11, he told her he wanted to defend America’s freedom on 9/11. 1/2 https://t.co/fbDCwonAi3
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) July 5, 2019
I’m beyond grateful for the sacrifice this young man & so many others like him have paid to protect us, & the great sacrifice of their family members. Let’s pray for Amanda Jacobs & all Gold Star family members today. We are the land of the free, because of the brave. 2/2
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) July 5, 2019
Levy was killed on Dec. 10, 2011, after sustaining fatal wounds in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
“These two children right here you can look at a flag and say that’s Uncle Jacob,” Jacobs said.
“That’s what we are here for today, not because I wanted to be a Gold Star mom,” she added.
“I got gold stars in school for making grades but this gold star that I wear every day isn’t for me, it’s because what my son chose to do without my permission, trust me, and I have a 17-year-old that is doing the same thing and it’s because of what they believed,” she said.
“I hear these Marines that come to my house and stay for four days. You know, I got 30 Marines that sleep on my floor and it’s great but they tell us that the only thing that kept them going is when they could look up and see that flag they had hope to go back home to and a hope that this country was going to change for the better, not for the worst,” Jacobs said.
In 2017, Jacobs recounted her son’s story in a post for Army Times.
“He was 11 when 9/11 hit … and I picked him up at school. They were shutting down schools, they were shutting down everything,” she wrote.
“At this point, only one of the towers had fallen. And by the time I’d picked him up, the second tower had fell. He was curious about what’s going on and I said, ‘Well, they’re thinking it’s terrorists. They don’t know.’ And he said, ‘I want to get the person who did that.’ And I said, ‘Well, they’ll get him.'”
“He said, ‘No, I’m going to get him. I want to be a Marine,'” she wrote.
In mid-2011, Levy returned home after one tour in Afghanistan, his mom said.
“He was going back as what they call [a] ‘combat replacement.’ And I said, ‘You understand what that means? You are replacing men who were in combat, who didn’t make it or will never go back.’ And he said, ‘I know, but I’ll be fine. I made it through the first one.'”
She last heard from her son on Nov. 14, and hoped his phone call meant he could come home for Thanksgiving.
“And he was like, ‘No, but I need to tell you, we’re going into a hot spot, and I won’t be able to talk. It’s for a couple of weeks, no phone calls, no emails, but everything will be fine,’” she recalled.
Then came the day Jacobs dreaded.
“I was at work. And at 12:32, I got — you get a coded message on your phone. And then after that came a message, you’ll get a phone call. There’s something serious,” she wrote.
“I got the call, and they asked where I was at … they said, ‘We need you to come home.’ And at this point, I was like, ‘No, you need to tell me what’s going on.’ And they said, it’s in regards to Lance Cpl. Levy, let us know how long it’s going to be until [you get home] and we’ll meet you there.”
Jacobs recounted that Christmas. She had put up a tree, but done nothing else.
“I had presents under there. Presents I had bought for Jacob, and nothing else. Fortunately, some of the [Marines] called to check on me. They said, ‘How’s it going?’ And I said, ‘Well, the other ones [Jacob’s brothers] won’t have anything for Christmas, because I’m not going out.’ Well, these guys went out and bought all kinds of boys’ stuff — video games, all that — and wrapped them, stuck them under the tree, decorated the tree before Christmas,” she wrote.
“So that’s our little tradition: They come in, they put the trees up, they bring ornaments that remind them of Jacob, or we make ornaments here, so now we’re up to three Christmas trees,” she added.
“They’re coming in and bringing their wives and their families, and it’s getting bigger and bigger. They enjoy it because they’ve gone from seeing each other every day, to now, they know they’ll at least see everybody in December,” Jacobs wrote.
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