Today, June 18^th, I was picking up my father breakfast and coffee in celebration of the holiday, and, you know, because he’s my dad and I really don’t need an excuse to help him out every now and again, but as I am pulling out of the local marketplace, I get behind a beat-up vehicle with a bumper sticker that read: “THIS IS AMERICA. LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.”

Almost immediately after reading this garbage, the older woman driving the vehicle bumped over the curb in making her turn, which I found both humorous and blissfully karmic, but her driving has very little to do with her disgusting attitude towards the nation. Of course, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, it may not be her car, but regardless, the sentiments spelled out in that bumper sticker are disgraceful and ignorant. I am going to be upfront and brutal about what I’m trying to say here: If you are unwilling to criticize a nation’s faults, step away. Your brainless, nationalistic ideologies are not welcome here (In fact, please excuse yourself from the country).

I should not have to explain what influenced the Germans in both World Wars, or the Japanese in the 1930’s, or the Rwandan Genocide, or the rise of McCarthyism in the United States, but considering how so many people tend to forget these events, whether they fell asleep in history class or just simply chose to ignore the newspaper or internet, I feel like I must bring these up for those in the back. I mean, ignorance is the root of an innumerable amount of issues human society has faced since we developed our advanced cranium, but to think that in 2017, where information is processed and spread so quickly and so easily, people would understand that turning a blind eye to what your nation’s doing and hiding under a false sense of love is what led to all these awful human-centered catastrophes. Yes, I do mean false love, because what you’re doing is not loving your nation, but rather you don’t love the country enough to help it grow.

There are so many issues I could tackle with this topic, from the hypocrisy of blaming children for receiving participation trophies to the overt molestation of the “Free Speech” defense, but for the sake of keeping us focused, I’ll divulge into what love actually is, and not what we sugarcoat it to be. We don’t even have to continue on the large, grandiose scale of talking about the United States, in case my rhetoric was making those in the back uncomfortable. We can look at friendships, romantic partners, family members, or even coworkers, especially for those of you in the creative fields.

As a writer, workshop is a constant must for improving your craft and learning from your mistakes. Feedback is paramount to creating a good piece, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. You know what isn’t helpful to, well, pretty much anyone trying to learn? Only telling them that their work is good, or bad, or that you liked it, or that you didn’t like it. You can say those things of course, but how do those statements benefit the writer? Explanations are crucial, and when you forsake the act of criticism, you are only doing so out of laziness. Just as the writer, the nation doesn’t benefit from your blind adoration. Fascists do, but we’re really not trying to appeal to those, now are we?

As a friend, if you were acting out of line or your attitude was becoming a detriment to the group, wouldn’t you appreciate the friend who told you what you were doing wrong over the friend who simply sat there with a dumb smile on their face? If your friend truly cared about you, they would tell you what you did not want to hear. They wouldn’t sit behind a false pretense of “I don’t want to hurt their feelings” because they know that if you were to continue like this, you’ll get hurt somewhere down the line in later relationships.

The act of constructive criticism is healthy and necessary. The malignant idea that a person cannot love their country while also discussing its faults is idiotic and detrimental. You can love the United States without turning a blind eye away from its faults. In a couple weeks, when Independence Day rolls in and the nation celebrates its heroes, we should remember the forefathers who refused to turn a blind eye towards the acts of their nation, just as they would want us to do now, more than ever. They would want us to celebrate the birth of a nation that was born from leaders choosing to act rather than remain stagnant. Those leaders loved this country more than any person who slaps red, white, and blue paint on their face while screeching about their one-dimensional grasp of “freedom” as children get shot in schools and Trump chooses money over the well-being of the planet.