What I’m saying about what they’re saying about Colin Kaepernick:

•Kaepernick’s protest statement is vague and immature.

There is no requirement that a person registering a beef must meet the eloquence standards of Martin Luther King Jr. or Henry David Thoreau.

Not that it matters. King’s eloquent and focused speeches and actions were not always met with, “Oh, now we get it!”

Speaking of mature and coherent, one widely read anti-Kaepernicker, Clay Travis of Fox Sports, calls the sit-down protest “an insult to anyone with a working brain.”

Now we’re getting into intellectual debating.

Let’s be straight here, Kap critics. You know what he’s saying.

•American women and men are fighting and dying for Kaepernick’s right to make $11.9 million playing (or sitting) pro football.

They’re also fighting and dying for Kaepernick’s right to express himself and to protest.

•Kaepernick’s protest is a distraction to his team. The media will besiege 49ers players with questions about their protesting QB.

I am chuckling. The only players required to speak to the media are starting quarterbacks. All other players have the right — frequently exercised on all NFL teams — to blow off the media. Or to say, “No comment” and go back to Madden ’16.

We might find out that some 49ers support Kaepernick’s thoughts and actions, and that would be interesting.

I will admit that 49ers’ ownership and the front office have been distracted, for maybe 15 minutes, from their efforts to run a once-successful franchise into the ground.

(To be fair, the team’s official response was sensitive and reasonable.)

A much larger distraction is that Kaepernick has mysteriously lost the ability to quarterback, but that’s a whole different story.

•If Kaepernick doesn’t like America, why doesn’t he leave?

He didn’t say he doesn’t like America. He said he doesn’t like what’s being done to some of its citizens. As Thoreau said, “I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”

And here’s a question back at you, as we fall into a playground-style circular argument: If you don’t like our Constitution and the right it gives citizens to protest, why don’t you leave?

•Isn’t there a better way for Kaepernick to express his outrage?

No doubt. Maybe send a candygram to the president.

If Kaepernick had my eloquence, he might answer that question by saying, “Isn’t there a better way for police to interact with people in the inner city?”

Based on independent investigations of several police departments, the clear answer is “yes.” The fairness ratings for most of these police departments are about as high as Kaepernick’s quarterback rating.

(Example: In the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice found a “pattern and practice” of racial discrimination.)

•Why protest against the government? It’s not the federal government that is persecuting minorities, it’s a few random misguided people.

True, the police in Ferguson and Baltimore were not acting under orders from the president. But there are other nits worth picking.

For one, many lawmakers are busy passing laws that will severely limit black voting, under the guise of halting voter fraud (example: In Mississippi, to get a government photo ID for voting, you must present a birth certificate; to get a birth certificate, which a disproportionate number of blacks don’t have, you must have a government photo ID). Statistics show that voter fraud is as big a problem in America as dengue fever.

•Why can’t Kaepernick do something concrete to help the oppressed?

Good point. It will be splendid if Kaepernick follows up his protest by being like, say, Dikembe Mutombo and David Robinson, who built schools and hospitals for the under-served with their own money.

•If Kaepernick can protest, we can protest his protesting.

Absolutely. That’s the way it works.

Kaepernick knows his protest is not risk-free. Thoreau, by advocating civil disobedience, lost a lucrative Log Cabin syrup endorsement deal.

But if your protest of Kaepernick’s protest involves death threats or violence, I’m not sure you are truly honoring the men and women fighting for our freedom.

Speaking of that, where is the patriotic outrage toward the NFL and the U.S. Defense Department for the phony at-game ceremonies honoring our war heroes, ceremonies that the NFL charged money for, like they would for a Gatorade commercial?

•The NFL and the USA have made Kaepernick rich; he should show his gratitude by shutting up.

That’s known as “I got mine.” Take your money and turn your back on your people. Their problems are no longer your problem. Your problem is getting the Bentley detailed.

Somehow that doesn’t seem admirable.

Thoreau wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

Kaepernick feels like singing.

Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler