Why I’m Not Patriotic

“Love of country isn’t natural. It’s not something you’re born with. It’s an inculcated kind of love, something that is foisted upon you in the home, in the school, on TV, at church, during the football game.”

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/04/10096/

Empire or Republic?

The dominant assumption of our nation's founders was to avoid "foreign entanglements," to use Thomas Jefferson's words of warning. Indeed, the policy of nonintervention was considered by the founders as a basic demarcation between the politics of the Old and New Worlds. Explaining in his farewell address why he, as our first President, followed "our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world," George Washington cautioned his countrymen to "moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

Read more: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/scheer

Blind Patriotism

"There can be no moral or legal justification for the type of patriotism that seeks only to inspire the members of one group to commit unspeakable acts against other groups for religious or political gain." Column by Mike Wasdin.
Read more:
http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/wasdin/wasdin8.html