I was listening to a superpatriot the other day saying what a great country we have and how criticism of its motives weakens the solid front we should be offering the world in these difficult times.
He was a Bush apologist who was using patriotism to cover up the fact that we have gotten ourselves into one fine mess in Iraq, but that's neither here nor there. What struck me was the solid-front business he was promulgating.
I tolerated his rant as politely as I could, but when I couldn't take it any longer I said, "You know what's truly great about this country? You don't have to be part of a solid front if you don't want to."
I ended my discussion with the guy on that note, and as I thought about it later, I realized how much grandeur there was in negativity when one considers freedom. Inherent in its rights, you see, is the right not to.
The concept is particularly significant on this Independence Day weekend, when we celebrate the precepts that have made us different from much of the world.
We have the right not to participate in that solid front if it violates our conscience. We can stand aside, ignore it or protest in a way of our choosing. If our choice involves mass demonstrations, that's a right too, the right not to assemble peaceably but to take part in displays of civil disobedience to make a point.
We have a choice to disobey police orders and not to yield to the truncheons and tear gas of the blue army, and not to beg for lenience if protest puts us behind bars.
We have the right not to remain silent when giving voice to the innocence and the passion of our causes, even when speaking out brands us as something less than patriotic.
These fundamental freedoms to choose, to make up our own minds, overlap with one of America's most fundamental rights: the right to vote, to elect our own leaders, to define our own future. That also includes the right not to vote if we don't want to, and most of us don't. We can take our chances with choices made by that small portion of the population that does go to the polls. And even then, it's our right not to like what we get and to moan about our fate, even though we did nothing to prevent it.
It's our right not to believe what we hear or what we read, because doubt is an integral part of freedom. It is similarly our right not to idolize leadership but to recognize that human weaknesses exist even among those who make stupendous decisions. It is our right not to follow those whose leadership we question.
