It’s my flag, too

(Wrote this for my Facebook last night and figured I’d share it here as well)

Guess what. I’m a liberal. And I’m not even remotely ashamed of it. Why should I be?

Do I love this country? Not blindly. I love what we’re supposed to be, but we haven’t achieved yet. And conversely I’m disgusted by what 9-11 turned us into.

We’re paranoid. We take jabs at each other without listening. I don’t think either side, politically, has much respect for the other anymore. We’re all just standing around pointing fingers at each other, distracted while our government goes rogue.

And I think we forget, on the Internet, on the big scale, that we’re all just people, mostly good. Never perfect. If we stop shouting at each other we might learn something useful.

We’re supposed to be the good guys, we’re supposed to live to a moral ideal, yet we’ve killed countless innocents in senseless wars while burying our heads in the sand.

Do I blame soldiers for that? Hell no. Do I blame us for not paying attention? Somewhat.
Blind flag waving scares me. Blind support of our military scares me too. Not the soldiers, but the Pentagon. The people telling soldiers to fire missiles at other countries because our targeting is so great that surely no civilians will be harmed.

What we hear is often so far from the truth its sickening. And it’s easier to believe the lies than to admit that we’ve lost our moral high ground. That we’re not what we’re supposed to be.
We need to have calm rational discussions, to look at what science and the rest of the world is telling us. To realize we’re all equal. There’s no difference between one person or another, anywhere on the globe.

Is creating a safe world where that can happen unrealistic? Perhaps.

But it’s worth striving for.

That’s why I’m a liberal.

Should I pack up and leave this country because I don’t love the flag? Guess what, it’s MY FLAG TOO. And it’s MY COUNTRY TOO.