On the Fourth of July, like the Agence France-Presse, John Kerry shared some thoughts on American patriotism and the flag.
Kerry delivered his screed on The Huffington Post.
This Fourth of July it's right to spend some time thinking about what it means not just to be an American, but to be a patriot -- because the concept of patriotism itself is under assault in ways that remind me of a different time in our history.
...We desperately need a real debate about patriotism -- about service, about American values.
We don't need another series of phony debates about whether we love our country, we need an injection of honesty about how to love our country.
I think patriotism starts with telling the truth. Truth is the American bottom line. I don't think it's an accident that among the first words of the first declaration of our national existence it is proclaimed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident...".
Patriotism also means dissent -- when it's hardest. The bedrock of America's greatest advances--the foundation of what we know today are defining values--was formed not by cheering on things as they were, but by taking them on and demanding change.
Patriotism demands we debate how we live by our principles and our values in the world. America has always embraced the best traditions of civilized conduct toward combatants and non-combatants in war. But does anyone think we're well served when leaders hold themselves above the law--in the way they not only treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib, but assert unchecked power to spy on American citizens? The Supreme Court certainly doesn't!
Patriotism demands telling the truth to Americans -- America can handle the truth about the Administration's boastful claim of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. The true pessimists are those who cannot accept that America's power and prestige depend on our credibility at home and around the world -- and the most dangerous defeatists, the most are those who invoke September 11th to argue that our traditional values are a luxury we can no longer afford.
But it's more than that. It's not just what we fight against, but what we fight for. Patriotism means not just ending this war, but preventing the next one -- to act now so that at some future date America will never have to fight for its economic security because we are permanently held hostage to foreign oil. Patriotism ought to be commanding us for the second time in our history to declare and win our independence, this time not from foreign rule but from foreign oil. To live out the patriotism of Abraham Lincoln who said we were the "last best hope of Earth," leaders should be insisting that we stop being the denier of global warming that endangers the Earth. Al Gore is a patriot this Fourth of July who is living out that kind of love of country -- and we need more like him.
Blah, blah, blah. I'm sorry if I put you to sleep.
Kerry, the master of bad-timing...
What better day to bash, bitch, and moan about the Bush administration than on the Fourth of July?
Rather than bringing Americans together in celebration of our great country, FOR JUST ONE DAY, Kerry chooses to be divisive.
I think it bothers Dems like Kerry when Americans see the good in our country, even on the Fourth of July.
There's something very wrong about that, something very typical among liberal Democrats.
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