It is our right to defy the jingoism that accompanies a drive to war, and our right to believe that those who die in war are more victim than hero. It is our right to shake our heads when we hear the parents of a dead soldier say they were proud that he died that way, instead of saying that he didn't have to die that way at all, torn by shrapnel, facedown in a ditch, bleeding into the sand.
We have the right in this land of rights not to accept the status quo but to challenge the stars in the name of destiny, to dare and sometimes to lose. We have the right to establish by losing that a truly free country allows for its failures and the learning that accompanies the grief when stars fall from the sky.
It is our right, Americans, to turn our backs on the freedoms that allow us to turn our backs. We can sit as the flag passes and, by our gesture, defy those around us who stand, hands over their hearts, solid citizens as tall and straight as boards, honoring the colors that fill the sky. And we can remain silent when the national anthem is sung, without tears in our eyes or a lump in our throats.
We can understand, as I always try to understand, the strengths encompassed by protest, by individuality, by the willingness to risk all for an idea whose time has come. I can't think of a better way to honor our country than by honoring the concept of choice and the liberty that options imply.
This is the power of my belief in America, and the soul of my commitment to it. And if there are tears in my heart and a shiver up my spine as I sit alone and sing of my country in a different way, it is only because I know I can. It's my right.
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