He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” (Albert Einstein)
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again! (Mark Twain)
Piece of Mindful 
“The soul and substance
of what customarily ranks
as patriotism
is moral cowardice
and always has been.”
-Mark Twain
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Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.
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http://www.bartleby.com/310/6/1.html
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I hear you, Mr. Benson. No problem – love of land and people is part of our makeup.
But when love of land and people becomes fear of foreigners, when we are so insecure in our boots that we can only think of patriotism as attacking others, then we are not patriots. We are xenophobes.
I love the land and people. I am a patriot. I hate our wars and greed, our fear and apparent psychotic need to kill steal from others to make our own lives tolerable. I am, therefore, a patriot.
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“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy
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Why would I want to do that?
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