Last week, half of our nation’s population was suffering through a record heat wave of life-threatening proportions.
Many of the rest us were left pondering whether we should “love our country or leave it,” as our divisive Twitter-fueled political clash keeps raging. As journalists who are devoted to everyone’s rights to free speech and open dissent, we felt compelled to put forth words of both offense and defense. But, instead, we have collected a series of words and quotes from others on the question of “love it or leave it.”
George McGovern, in his acceptance speech at the 1972 Democratic National Convention said: “We reject the view of those who say, ‘America, love it or leave it.’ We reply, ‘Let us change it so we can love it more.’”
George Washington said: “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
The radical revolutionist Thomas Jefferson said: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” meaning that if liberty is to exist, there will forever be a struggle of free people with the forces of tyranny.
Other U.S. presidents through history left behind these words:
“When even one American who has done nothing wrong is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth then all Americans are in peril.” — Harry S. Truman
“Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.” — Abraham Lincoln
“Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive.” — John F. Kennedy
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” — Theodore Roosevelt
Dr. Seuss, who was not a U.S. president, said this: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” — Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
“So, two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.” — author E. M. Forster
“The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy. The problem comes when healthy criticism is replaced with more destructive intimidation and sanctions.” — Sandra Day O’Connor, former Supreme Court justice.
Here are two final quotes. Guess who said which one between President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.):
First quote: “I’m very angry because our country is being run horribly, and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. Our health care is a horror show. Our vets are being treated horribly. Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry. I’m angry because our country is a mess.”
Second quote: “We have a political culture of intimidation, of favoring, of patronage, and of fear, and that is no way for a community to be governed. Our democracy is designed to speak truth to power.”
Sorry, but we are not revealing an answer to who belongs to which quote. They are almost interchangeable, anyway, which makes a bigger point for us about dissent and tyranny.
Now, try to imagine what America might have become if all the people quoted above chose to leave America instead of staying and trying to find better ways to love it even more.
