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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (119784)	6/13/2005 11:29:28 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793801

Hi Hagihana, I appreciate how you feel about the flag and I can think of many good reasons why you might feel that way. The flag is what we make it. As you've said, in WW11 we made the flag greater. We filled it with honor and purpose and wisdom through the sacrifices of our country and the wise and honorable actions we took to rebuild the world after the war. I, too, worry that we are on a downward slope. Sometimes in life you have to take a long hard look at yourself and get back to your basic values. I think that as a country we need to do that now. The danger of the flag is that the strong feelings of patriotism it sometimes invokes can be used as a substitute for thinking. The "my country right or wrong" folks usually are the strongest supporters of the flag, but we can fly the flag proudly only if we refuse to go along with "my country right or wrong." It's our job to make our country right, and that means it's our job to independently analyze every decision for ourselves, criticize the decisions we feel are demeaning the flag, and democratically promote changes that lend more honor to the flag and our country. One of the most frightening aspects of some of the major players in the Bush Administration is the instances where they've attempted to chill this process. Stifling debate, muzzling the press and the public and chilling the great debate that we should be having could prevent us from adjusting to a changing world and surviving as a free country. There are, however, many who seem determined not only to have their say, but also to impose penalties on those who express opposing points of view. Recently several high level tech people who'd contributed to the Kerry campaign were "uninvited" to a world level tech conference. The Bush government readily agreed that the reason for their uninvite was because they'd supported Kerry. It's a dangerous pattern. Ed