I love this life, I really do. Despite the pollution, climate change, extinction of species, and outright corruption and greed during the time I'm living in, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.
You see, I haven't always been a lefty radical. And while a part of me laments the current state of affairs - particularly the defilement of liberty and freedom as we once knew them, I now have the opportunity to be all the radical I can be. The resistance is needed, it's growing, and I'm grateful to be a part of it.
I was born in 1967, so our country's bicentennial came at a time when my world-awareness was growing by leaps. It's a patriotism that I remember, no matter how tainted by conservatism and a war of aggression that the brand has become. I pity the generation who didn't experience this and I wonder if their idea of patriotism is a hollow "bring it on" self-righteous xenophobia.
As you might tell, George Orwell is my favorite author. Even though "it can't happen here" dominated my mindset in 1984, that was also the year that Big Brother pressed his thumb down on me. That's when I began to shift from an Izod wearing elite suburbanite into a long haired anti-establishment free thinker who traveled for years following the Grateful Dead, coming home to proudly slap a "Reagan Knew" sticker on the family car.
All of this is the groundwork for who I've become. I can't remember exactly when I decided that I'd had enough. Maybe it was during the infamous SOTU address when my bullshit meter went into the red zone. Maybe it was when we began preparing to invade Iraq with money appropriated for Afghanistan. Or maybe it was when the SCOTUS blatantly denied suffrage to the people of Florida.
But at some point, I had enough and I wasn't going to take it anymore. I stopped living in a world where I hoped not to draw attention to myself, and adopted my own version of "bring it on."
Because I don't care anymore. I don't care if they invade my privacy, tap my phone and sniff every packet that leaves this laptop. There's a movement in this country, a push-back against the regime which seeks to dictate, coerce and destroy its domestic enemies. I never thought there would be another Patrick Henry moment for this great nation of ours, but that moment is upon us.
Last year I committed myself to taking down the local Goliath. I made Anne Northup embarrass herself on NPR, I helped in her defeat, and then I set the my sights on the next target. And I will continue to work with other like minded people who aren't afraid of the puppetmasters or the all-seeing eye. To be afraid is to allow their strategy to take hold. The only way to defeat this nightmarish transformation of our country is to stand up, to speak out loudly and with conviction. As much as I dread to watch the potential of this narrative unfold, I know that there is just one way to stop the juggernaut -- and that is not to cower or hide.
The answer for me, is to be as outspoken as I can be. They are counting on our acquiescence-by-default, and so I must speak out for those who will hold their tongues, for the ones who turn away from dissent. This is my opportunity to be an American during one of the most important times in our nation's history. That, my friends, is Patriotism.