True Patriotism

You may or may not be familiar with Air Force Colonel Morris Davis-but his courage speaks to me of a patriotism that runs far deeper than flag pins and high rhetoric.  As TIME magazine so succinctly reported, Davis was the chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who resigned last fall and who may be testifying in defense of those who he would have been prosecuting.  The reason?  Because top Pentagon officials interfered with the system for political reasons, going against the values this nation was founded upon.  The notion of justice and equality--where every man has a right to defend himself--was jeopardized when these officials tried to use the system to gain political benefits or "drum up public support" for a war that was rapidly losing popularity.  The tragedy of this is that this testimony may now be used as a defense of prisoners that should rightly be convicted because of their actual involvement in terrorist activities.  But I do not blame Davis for that unfortunate side effect.  No, instead I applaud him for being a true American, for defending our values of freedom and justice no matter how difficult the situation.  Guantanamo has already served up images of America to the rest of the world that stray far from who we are.  Our president, politicians, and officials have disgraced our beautiful country by betraying our core values.  I am proud that a man has the strength to stand up and tell the truth against those more powerful than himself, and that the world will see we live in a country that allows and applauds such bravery.  Greater patriotism there is not.  A better example of what America is, there is not.  And I only can hope there will be a time in the near future when all our leaders embody these same qualities.