Happy Fourth of July!

A man doesn't have to agree with his government to be a patriot, does he? It takes a true patriot to dissent, to say he loves his country more than he cares for his own place in the social order.

- CASSANDRA CLARE, City of Ashes

from eighteen25 via pinterest

If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.
- HOWARD ZINN, Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology

True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant and earnest striving toward the principles and ideals on which this country was founded.
- ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, Book of Common Sense Etiquette