This Fourth of July

This Fourth of July, I was thinking about patriotism to my country as I thought that was an appropriate time to do so. I began thinking of a quote by the great navy captain Stephen Decatur:

“Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong”

Sounds nice enough, doesn't it? Very patriotic and everything. However, I wanted to dive more into the meaning of these words, particularly, "but our country, right or wrong." Dear old Stephen believed that no matter what, our country is always in the right... even when we're wrong.

Personally, I don't believe that. Yes, I think America is the best country in the world and I love what it means very much. But, that is why I'm so concerned with the way it is going! I think that if our country is in the wrong, we shouldn't just sit back and call it right. We should, instead, demand a change! That's what America is about, right? Change! No, not just because that's what Obama says all the time, but because that's what our Founding Fathers did in the Revolution, they changed from a monarchy to a democracy. This gave us the right to be able to change things when they go wrong! And, demanding a change does not mean voting for another big man who promises change and then sit back and hope that he does what he said he would. Comfortable, right? No speaking up, no protesting, no revolting orf any kind, no thinking even, the news people do that for us, just no trouble at all!

Americans are all about comfort, which isn't always a bad thing. However, things start happening when we wish to remain comfortable. Things that aren't right. We've allowed large corporations to treat animals inhumanely because we aren't comfortable with higher prices of meat. We've let factories move over seas because we still aren't comfortable with higher prices and because we're uncomfortable with mistreating humans... inside our borders that is. (Remind me to tell you about "slave chocolate" some other time) We even let mothers kill their own babies because the mothers or fathers or boyfriends or girlfriends just aren't comfortable with the pregnancy.

We have to remember that, just because its America doesn't mean it's right.