I attended a get together last week at one of the sports bar/family restaurants in town, where people that work at the facility where I do my clinicals congregate after work on Fridays. They invited the students, and taking them up on their hospitality has proved interesting. On the night in question an x-ray student from another school showed up as well with some friends in tow. A tech was there as well, a professed 'Liberal', and the conversation involved some controversial issues. It was interesting because the other student and her friends professed a republican mind set. One of the statements was, "Criticizing the government is unpatriotic." This of course parrots one of the many talking points spewing from the radical right, but it got me thinking. I don't really know how to respond to such blather, I guess mainly because of its obvious opposition to one of our basic rights as delimited in the Constitution.

It is obvious to me, but not so much so that I could argue the point, so I looked up the precise wording in the first amendment. (I at least knew it was this section that contained the contradicting sentiment)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It is here in its entirety for context, but the phrase of interest is the last, to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Someone that says criticism is wrong because it is unpatriotic displays a comprehension of the letter and spirit of our Constitution that is severely lacking. It is there, in black and white, that this is a right of any citizen. Some have suggested over the years it is every member of society's duty to criticize, and that a quality of an ineffective citizenry is an absence of criticism.