In honor of Independence Day, I thought I would share my feelings on what it means to be patriotic. Let me assure you that my definition has nothing to do with the Patriot Act or blind nationalism that many Americans seem to favor these days.

In my opinion, the most truly American action that a citizen can take is to question his or her own government.

To quote Thomas Jefferson, “It is the right of the people to abolish the government when it has become destructive to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.”

Well, I think that it is far time to abolish the Bush Administration. It has made one huge glaring error – technically, they have made many errors, but one stands out among the rest.

Bush (and I refuse to refer to him as “President,” because I do not believe that he has earned that title) led us to war under false pretenses and continues to sponsor an unjust war.

Tens of thousands of innocent American soldiers and Iraqi citizens are dying, and we do not know the real reason we are at war.

Is it in the name of terrorism? I thought most of the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia. I know that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were not on the best of terms.

How about oil? That is a more likely reason, although I do not want to believe that anyone would act so selfishly.

I really cannot pinpoint the cause of this war on anything but our dismal foreign policy record and condescending Big Brother attitude.

Regardless of why we went to war, one fact holds true. We, the American people, are not doing enough to stop the war.

The other day I was driving, and that old Buffalo Springfield song about the Vietnam war came on the radio. “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. There’s a man with a gun over there telling me I’ve got to beware.” Anyways, it is about people (mainly college students) protesting Vietnam.

And I thought to myself, “How sad that this war hasn’t seen the same kind of uprising. We could all be doing so much more to end all of this senseless violence.”

Then, it hit me. No one is doing anything to stop the war in Iraq, which has the potential to escalate into World War Three, because there is no draft.

I think the Bush Administration also knows this to be true. The only thing preventing a draft is the knowledge that it would instigate another war at home, much like the one we saw during the 1960’s.

Let’s get back to my original point about questioning the government in the spirit of patriotism.

This Independence Day, the best thing you can do for America is to find a way to protest the war.

Send a letter to your senator, telling them why you disagree with the state of current affairs.

Spend a day volunteering for a democratic candidate’s campaign.

Turn a flag upside down to demonstrate how it no longer represents patriotic ideals.

You can even sit back and relax by listening to Anti-Flag or other political savvy musicians while you’re at the beach.

Hopefully, enough of us will mobilize and we can get some attention. Let’s bring back the spirit of the ’60’s before the draft does it for us.

Protesting our government is really the most American thing a citizen can do.

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