Independence Day… or not!

I just finished reading a piece penned by the late, great Howard Zinn entitled "Put Away the Flags," which pretty much sums up how I'm feeling on this 4th of July. "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? ... 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." Ahh, [...]