Apparently, to be a “patriotic” American, one must blindly follow one’s country. Time after time I’ve read people’s opinion where they exercise their patriotic duty, and tell all of us non-patriotic people to love it or leave it. Too many think our country can do no wrong, and has done no wrong. Let me clue all of you in on something, because it’s obviously been a secret for a long time. People don’t commit acts of terror for no reason. But that’s what we’d like to think. Is it so hard to believe we might have screwed something up, and that’s why there is such a deep-seeded hatred for us?

Before we spent so much time and money making our country more secure, we should have adjusted our foreign policies. Bush should have swallowed his pride and at least made a small attempt to apologize for the things we do to the world. But, instead, he climbed back up on his high horse so he could ride over to Iraq and take out their terrible leader. And the beauty of it is, it’s all in the name of “freedom.”

Everyone is throwing around the word freedom in the wrong way. Take Ms. Amy Peet for example. She makes a marvelous statement that our country was founded on freedom. I couldn’t agree more. But in the very next paragraph she corrects herself. Apparently, it’s just her freedom she was talking about. After all, she’s patriotic and not a minority.

Finally, let’s all remember the people that died on 9/11. But please, remember them for the right reason. It’s tragic they had to bear the punishment for our country’s past mistakes, and it is our duty as Americans to see that they didn’t die in vain.

Jared Strong

Junior

Computer Science