I wonder sometimes if it would benefit us if everyone that uses the slogan, “America, love it or leave it,” left. I think that maybe it would. They seem to be the ones that love/understand America the least. Maybe they could all congregate on an island in the south pacific. I just think they would all be happier on an island surrounded by people who think exactly the same themselves. The rest of us… Americans…could go about the business of being American. American…I seem to remember a degree of inclusion and diversity that was associated with that word.
It always amazes me, the number of Americans that don’t understand what the idea of America is
. Americans that love their country but hate its citizenry for loving it so much they are willing to challenge it to keep it honest. The true patriots are the people who see it’s sort comings and challenge the system to change and overcome them. There is patriotism…. And then there is blind faith. Blind faith still thinks that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. Blind faith is more concerned about two consenting adults getting married than the fact that a whole bunch of innocent brown people are being killed or at the least displaced and without basic necessities because of our governments mishandling (putting it mildly) of Iraq. All of this under the assumption that their suffering has something to do with our freedom…or security, or…wait I think I hear two gay people exchanging wedding vows. *baby Jebus is crying*…
Those with blind faith think it’s acceptable for the creation of laws that allow the government to spy on and imprison its own citizens without due process. Create secret prisons and shadow armies that aren’t accountable to the people. And if they don’t think it’s acceptable, they simply don’t believe that’s it true despite the orgy of facts. Patriots love their country enough to hold it accountable when it is dead wrong. Democracy can’t exist when the people think in a vacuum.
Chris
