I’ve been resisting writing this column for weeks.

Not writing it, though, feels so, I don’t know, hypocritical.

Because I’m pleased, so incredibly pleased, that Colin Kaepernick and his fellow football players, basketball players, soccer players and others in the world of have tried — and I would argue, succeeded in — creating a broader national discourse on racial inequality and police misconduct by refusing to stand for the National Anthem.

It’s a triumph of courage, patience and intellectualism.

It’s also, unfortunately, a reminder of how so many people will do whatever they can to avoid even the smallest bit of discomfort.

If people refusing to stand for a song make you uncomfortable: good. They should.

Unarmed black people being shot by police should make you uncomfortable, too.

Contemplating the plight of impoverished children and their families, held in place by underfunded schools, inadequate healthcare, predatory lending practices, a judicial system tilted against them, rampant drug addiction, homelessness and starvation — yeah, that’s pretty uncomfortable.

But you know what? It feels good to be uncomfortable. It feels good to challenge perceptions and live beyond yourself, to live with as deep an understanding of the world and its people as possible.

That’s just me, though. And, if we’re being totally honest, that’s only me at my absolute best. Because it’s a lot easier for me to just stake out a position that feels comfortable, not listen to anything or anyone that disagrees with me, not worry about problems that don’t affect me, stick my head in the sand and go about my day.

It’s really easy and it feels nice and warm and safe.

But if you’re about engaging your brain to its fullest and filling your soul — whatever you believe that to be — with the kind of warmth that complacency mutes and chills, the only way to do that is to allow yourself, your perceptions and your worldview to be challenged.

There is a whole world of complicated truths we can search for if we stretch our minds beyond the planet of absolutes.

Colin Kaepernick chose an acceptable, attention-grabbing form of protest by kneeling during the anthem. He also did a supremely stupid thing when he wore socks with pigs in police uniforms.

The vast majority of police officers are selfless, altruistic, levelheaded men and women who deserve our respect and admiration. Some police officers are gun-toting monsters that should be thrown in jail, shooting unarmed black men five times more often than unarmed white men, according to a Washington Post database that tracks police shootings nationwide.

Most journalists crave truth and understanding, with a strong underlying sense of justice. Some, though, are biased, lazy sensationalists.

Kaepernick is not a hero or a villain. He’s a human.

All police officers do not kill unarmed minorities. What they all are is human.

Journalists? Yeah, believe it or not, they’re human, too.

The truth about every person, about every issue, about every controversy lies somewhere in the middle. The solution to any problem is somewhere in between one answer and another, and the way to get to that answer is to think about it, talk about it, and — most important of all — to listen and learn as much as possible.

It’s not black lives matter or blue lives matter. It’s both. And it’s a lot more than that. It’s really complicated, honestly, and there isn’t anything approaching an easy solution.

But that doesn’t mean we stop trying. That doesn’t mean when someone like Kaepernick starts talking about black lives that we instinctively fire back about our own lives and our own world. We’re humans and we can do nuance and we can handle complicated. It’s not easy but of course it isn’t. What good answer has ever come from doing the easiest thing possible? What triumph of humanity came from sitting idly by and shouting at a problem until it goes away?

The next time you see a person protesting and that protest doesn’t make you uncomfortable, the protester is doing it wrong. Their protest isn’t working.

And the next time you react to something that makes you uncomfortable by sticking your fingers in your ears, stomping your feet and shouting down the person you disagree with, you’re doing it wrong, too.

A viable, intelligent discourse that involves a calm, fact-based exchange of ideas is badly needed in this country and is, really, the only way to make any kind of progress on anything.

It involves two pieces, though. Someone has to bring up the subject in a way that catches our attention — something getting more difficult all the time as we invent and invest in more things to distract ourselves — and we have to respond to it the right way.

Athletes, as I’ve written about before in this space, have a unique platform. They can get noticed way easier than the rest of us, since we’re all already watching them.

It takes courage to speak out because people will hate you for challenging them. You don’t have to look further than the death threats Kaepernick and others who dare to push us to expand our perspectives have received.

So thanks, Colin, for seeing beyond yourself. For being a millionaire celebrity, a guy who can buy whatever he wants, eat whatever he wants, live however and wherever he wants, and still allowing himself to be a little uncomfortable because he can and he knows he should.

To do anything less, frankly, is to take the easy way out.

Andy Viano is a sports reporter and columnist at the Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at (406) 758-4446 or aviano@dailyinterlake.com.