"Brenda J. Walker" wrote: > > Criticism of our > > > government and what it is doing or has done is not anti-American. Nor is > > it > > > necessarily anti-war. In fact to me, it is distinctly American to > > criticize > > > and question our government.
The reply was: > > I would disagree. > Brenda responded: > > I think that's very unfortunate. I am with Brenda. If criticizing the government was un-American, then George W Bush should have been thrown in jail for his last campaign - he criticized the incumbent president, he questioned the government. That is absurd of course - because Brenda, you are so right, it is the American way to criticizes, to question, and to work through the system. Thus we the Constitution. Thus we have elections. That is what makes America work, what makes America great. Un-American to be antiwar? Hardly. Any reading of American history will have discussion of ample dissent in every era; dissent against the Mexican-American war, the riots in New York in the 1860s protesting the draft in the Civil war, etc. It is not wrong and not illegal to question our government because this is America. Now in China, in the old Soviet Union, in any number of any repressive regimes, it is considered unpatriotic to not agree with the government. A jailable offense in many places. Thank God, and I mean that, that this country stands for the freedom of people to disagree and dissent and to criticize and to seek change and make change happen through the system, through elections, through the constitutional process. For this, for these reasons, for the wisdom of the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights, for these reasons, I fly my flag high and sing, "my country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty..." (the Rev) Vince, flying both his freak flag and his American flag high PS An interesting way to measure patriotism: have you ever missed voting in any election? Have you ever done voter registration? Who can name without pause the name of their two senators and their representative in the House and the nine justices (well, the 4 justices and 5 injustices, a little joke there) on the Supreme Court?