Independence Day!

Independence Day is an opportunity to reflect. I think the founders of our nation had some solid, sometimes even lofty, principles and wanted to break away from tyranny and corruption. Today we are faced with aspects of tyranny and corruption within our own system. I view patriotism as a willingness to shape the nation in the most positive ways possible and to dissent from policies and systems that don’t align with one’s ethical principles. I consider automatically falling in line with the nation’s policies out of blind obedience to be nationalism, not patriotism. Let’s all be patriots who hold ourselves and our nation to the highest standards of justice and morality. We need to speak out when the nation falls short of our standards of justice and morality. Sometimes dissent is patriotic! – Shepard