What are you doing to celebrate Loyalty Day?

[Redalgo]

As always, yesterday I refused to recite the pledge, and today will be no different. My loyalty is to myself alone, and my continued cooperation with the government of the United States remains conditional upon ours being a satisfactorily arrangement of mutual-benefit. Rather than observing Loyalty Day, I focus on May Day instead and am brimming with socialist patriotism - though not really in a Marxist-Leninist flavour.

[Redalgo]

I dare you - sincerely I do dare you - to try and reject this 'arrangement of mutual-benefit'.

I do not want to go through the trouble of emigration, do not much fancy the prospect of being in prison, or having to otherwise compartmentalize away and conceal a criminal aspect of my life. The fact remains that I have a choice. Having so few options makes my freedom in the matter less than would be ideally actionable, in fairness to your point, but the balances of power in the agreement are not quite completely tilted in the state's advantage.

A lot of improvements could be made of course and I am not happy about the condition of my country.

[Redalgo]

Then why bother complaining if you're unwilling to move? Jesus. Still not showering?

By their very nature the radical seeks to make sweeping changes to society, getting at the roots of the flaws they perceive in the prevailing order. I complain because I am convinced a better world is possible - not because I am ungrateful for or unequivocally hate the system in place.

I would either move or rebel if I felt sufficiently betrayed by the state, and expect the same of everybody else in the country who is not cowardly, ignorant to the situation, or authoritarian-minded. These days I am not that troubled because there are peaceful means for bringing about meaningful changes. And atop of that, I do not want the U.S. to be the way I like without broad-based public support. I care about quality of process more than quality of results in government.