What comes to your mind when you hear the term civil disobedience?
The civil rights movement of the 1960′s?
Crazy liberal or conservatives who are too way off center for their own good?
A college age adult getting out some angst?

How do you define patriotism?
Buying American goods and services?
Wearing the colors?
Joining a branch of the military to serve the country?

Something lost in our current political society of twenty-four hour news is the connection of these two ideas. On one hand you have the concept of pushing against the established political establishment to protest and make changes. On the other hand you have the selfless praise and pride of the established political establishment.

We have been told as of late that supporting the federal government is patriotism. Many say we’re involved in pro-active wars, undeclared by Congress, with the support of the populous, because of the constructed patriotism.
We have been subliminally taught that people who are a little nuts are civilly disobedient. Many say this is a way to discredit the ideas that go against the grain of the current establishment/government/political movement.

The problem here is that these aren’t ideas established by the United States of America or by Americans. The modern definitions are very much a creation of large government pushing political movements and the media blindly (debatable) regurgitating the, dare I say, propaganda created by the federal government. Ignoring what we’re taught by our government and media, the root definitions of these ideas are still more American than most of us realize.

These are two ideas that are at the core of the creation of this country in its original and re-established (post Civil War) form. The colonies were created in imperialistic fashion. The problems of taxation without representation grew to a point that our forefathers actually seceded from England. Secession is a form of civil disobedience. We did not sail to England to shove our muskets in the face of the monarchy. We declared independence from England. We created the states and united them under the idea of patriotism. The unorganized members of the original military didn’t sacrifice their life and limb because they were best friends with their fellow militiamen. The fought and died for the ideas behind their flag and their country.

The act of this country’s creation and its very next act (to defend the truth and validity of the first act) were civil disobedience and patriotism.

As many people are discounting ideas this old-fashioned and antiquated, I’ll have you think back to the nineteen-sixties. Don’t take for granted that you (if you are a minority), or one of your friends or family (if your friends or family are a minority), or fellow citizens (if you don’t fit the two prior categories) can eat in the same place as the established “majority”. Don’t think that humans being treated equally is a long established concept in American history. Slavery was over in the nineteen-sixties but the tragedy of our own history in social justice is we still had people dying for equal rights.

Civil disobedience brought Rosa Parks validity.
Civil disobedience brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s words and dreams into real life.
In the end, civil disobedience in the civil rights movement gave liberty to millions and opened the mind and hearts of hundreds of millions.

Whoever denies the beauty and awesomeness of liberty given by the movement towards equality is truly blind. The death and hatred in the civil rights movement were brought to the forefront of everyone’s minds and as the true life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness loving people we are as a country, we could not let the injustice continue. Yes people were hurt and killed in the process. Yes they risked their lives, property, and prosperity. These were not politicians or people running for office. These were and are people just as we are. These were and are people with jobs, kids, mortgages, and lives just as we are.

Did they value their life less because they risked it for liberty?
Was their schedule not nearly as busy as ours so that they were free to educate themselves and others?
Why do we tell ourselves that we are so weak and powerless as to dishonor what real patriots have done before us?
Why is this the last well documented, well reported, massive act of civil disobedience in American history?

If you want to measure your patriotism…
don’t worry about the number of flags you own…
don’t count the number of radio talk shows you listen to…
don’t using your voting record as a “I told you so”…
don’t count the number of signs that you have waved at people driving by who are almost entirely ignoring you…
don’t count the number of e-mails, faxes, and phone calls you have sent to your representatives (which end up being answered by a staffer, some canned responses or ignored altogether)…

measure your patriotism by the number of family members you’d be willing to say goodbye to forever for your cause!

measure your patriotism by the fiscal sacrifice you make to help not yourself but others!

measure your patriotism by the luxuries you are willing to forgo to make sure that liberty doesn’t just apply to whoever has the favor of the current administration!

measure your patriotism by the freedom to pray to any God you choose!

measure your patriotism by the respect you give your fellow human being in their choice to pray to a different God!

measure your patriotism by the respect you give your fellow human being in their choice to believe in no god!

measure your patriotism not by the pain you feel in your heart when you see the country being attacked, but by the stink you raise in opposition to the attack!

Ask your favorite veteran about the times they said goodbye before they left for duty. Ask them why they risked their life and chance to see their family again. Could you make this sacrifice? Would you give up your life for the cause of liberty? Would you die for the liberty of another man’s faith who does not match your own? As a Christian, would you die fightining for a Muslim’s freedom of religion? As a Muslim, would you die fighting for the freedom of a Christian? As an atheist, would you die for the liberty for your fellow man to pray to whichever deity he or she chooses?

This is your measure of patriotism. The sacrifice you will make for freedom of all even in opposition to your personal views and faith. This is the measure of your stars and bars and the pride in your liberty loving country.

This is the most American act and idea that has ever existed. Civil disobedience and patriotism are America.

“And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” -John F. Kennedy