When Kaepernick began his protest, he sat on a bench during the anthem. A few weeks later, he and Reid met with retired Green Beret and former NFL player Nate Boyer.

From that meeting came compromise.

"My brother, who's a retired lieutenant colonel, said the first thing that happens on the battlefield when a soldier goes down is his fellow soldiers kneel around him," Guillory-Reid said. "It's a sign of respect.

"So however people have twisted it for their own personal agenda, or because they don't want to see or they want to have something to complain about, then that's on them. They're just not being open-minded. They're not listening."

That's a point Reid has been telling anyone who would listen. Which, of course, is a big part of the problem. We so often now struggle – or just don't want – to listen to each other.

This isn't about the flag. Or the military.

"We've never been protesting the Armed Services," Reid said. "I have an extensive list of family members who are in the Armed Services, and they encouraged me to speak up because when they get home, they face the same things that I'm talking about.

"These are folks who fight for our country. They fight for our freedoms. But when they come home, they aren't treated the same in every aspect of life. So I'm fighting for my family as well because we've experienced these things for far too long."

Like his mother.

"I can remember going out to California," said Guillory-Reid, who's made regular trips to the Bay Area over the past 13 years as a registered nurse, "and people would tell me when I was looking for an apartment, 'Maybe you need somebody else to call and make inquiries on the phone so you can get an interview for the apartment.'

"By that, they were talking about somebody that doesn't sound like me. And it still goes on to this day. Everywhere."

This is about a flawed criminal justice system. It's about police brutality and racial injustice. It's about the incident that affected Reid most, when Alton Sterling was shot dead about 20 miles from the Reids' home in July 2016.

"Again, it's never been about disrespecting our Armed Services or anybody that is involved with first response," Reid reiterated. "It's about raising awareness and fighting systematic oppression."