You say it is disrespectful to our servicemen and women, but you wouldn’t give up one football Sunday to volunteer at the VA hospital.

You say it is disrespectful to the flag, but you turn a blind eye to the basic tenants the flag represents. Such as All men are created equal and individual Liberty: The principle that each person is born with freedom from arbitrary or unjustified restraint.

America is a complicated country founded on the principle that all men are created equal while at the same time it was openly embracing slavery and allowing legalized discrimination until as recently as the 1960s. Full of so-called patriots who embrace our military but at the same time are willing to turn a blind eye toward the problems many soldiers encounter after they return home. A country whose richness was built upon immigrants’ various contributions, whose diversity is one of its most vital qualities yet still has many people who reject immigration and segregate themselves in their communities afraid of the unknown from a different race or culture.

Despite all its flaws, America remains the greatest country globally, but it can be better. We as a people are tasked with ensuring that it reaches its unlimited potential. To achieve that promise, it is sometimes necessary for the people to engage in Nonviolent resistance to facilitate social change through symbolic protests and civil disobedience. Every time this is done, there will be those who disapprove those who wish to keep the status quo, but as Richard Dawkins said

“when two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong.

We should never be afraid to raise our voice against injustice; it is our moral responsibility to see that our country lives up to the principles it was founded on. To do any less would to be complicit in the failure of the promise that is America. As H.L. Mencken so eloquently stated

“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.”

So continue to shine a light on social injustice. Continue to demand that America live up to her promise. Reject those who would have you accept the status quo; after all, dissent is the highest form of patriotism.