Funny picture from the People's Cube and it goes with a Howard Zinn essay written bout the celebration of America's Independence Day. Without further ado, in the spirit of the 4th and that one of my history textbooks was written by him, an essay by Howard Zinn on why we shouldn't celebrate the 4th of July in America.

Put Away the Flags
by Howard Zinn

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking -- cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on -- have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.

Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy.

That self-deception started early.

When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession."

When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."

On the eve of the Mexican War, an American journalist declared it our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." After the invasion of Mexico began, The New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country."

It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to
war.

We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people.

As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our secretary of war, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness."

We see in Iraq that our soldiers are not different. They have, perhaps against their better nature, killed thousands of Iraq civilians. And some soldiers have shown themselves capable of brutality, of torture.

Yet they are victims, too, of our government's lies.

How many times have we heard President Bush tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for "liberty," for "democracy"?

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail in 2004 that God speaks through him.

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

Howard Zinn, a World War II bombardier, is the author of the best-
selling "A People's History of the United States" (Perennial Classics, 2003, latest edition). This piece was distributed by the Progressive Media Project in 2006.

I'm sorry Mr. Zinn (actually I'm not), but I'm proud of my Country, I will not apologize for it, and I wholeheartedly disagree with your essay. Our nation is different. Our nation lets individuals go as far as they want with their talents. Our Nation is the one people risk their lives and wait years to emigrate to. Our Nation is looked upon for guidance and hope when nature strikes and turns civilizations and governments into chaos. Our Nation isn't perfect but we as a people are kind and generous. We are not a "warmonger" or "racist" nation Mr. Zinn, nor are we Imperialistic.

In the words of Colin Powell: "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

I've seen evil and tyranny Mr. Zinn: In the former East Germany were a wall was constructed to keep people in. On the DMZ in Korea, where a million plus strong army is posed to invade and destroy a democracy. In Iraq, and occupied Kuwait, where a brutal dictator told his Officers upon retreating to kill everyone and leave nothing, meaning treasures and gold. I've seen it Mr. Zinn, I've seen soldiers killed and wounded to liberate people who were being raped and murdered for being of a different nationality.

We live in the greatest nation on Earth. We, as a people, have struggled to keep the American ideal alive. I'm putting my Flag out, and I'm going to throw some Nathan's hot dogs on my grill and get goose bumps at when our National Anthem is played while fireworks light up the sky. I love my Country, Mr. Zinn, without conditions or apologies. Maybe you should look beyond political ideals Mr. Zinn, you might just find out that you love America too.