Something I said in another place:
"If need be, I will fight for the right of a braless unwashed hippie chick to decry everything about America. Why? Because, damnit, she has the right to, and that is what makes our country great, not flags, not Lee Greenwood crap songs, not cheesy tribute websites. Every person in this country has the right to speak their minds without fear -- something every Middle Eastern/Central Asian Muslim craves and Bin Laden and the Taliban refuses to give them."
I'm not exactly a reactionary conservative. A Roosevelt Republican, perhaps. But I'm not a wave the flag sort of person. Still, I know we have certain fundamental rights we take for granted in this country, e.g. free speech, freedom to travel, privacy. We live a country, screwed up though it is, that still makes people risk their lives to get inside its borders.
