This is fairly lengthy (18mins), but it's definitely worth the watch. Cenk went down to Occupy LA on Saturday to give a speech about Bradley Manning, who is still imprisoned for allegedly "aiding the enemy" by whistle-blowing government activities in the Middle East over two years ago. He makes some very good points about what it (should) means to be patriotic, and goes in to fairly extensive detail on how the media has dropped the ball on this story (among... pretty much every other story), and how they seem baffled as to why fewer and fewer people watch and/or trust mainstream news outlets.
While I sincerely doubt that any member of these boards will disagree, the punchline of Cenk's speech is that real patriotism (thank you TeaBaggers for ruining that phrase) means holding your government accountable for its actions, as opposed to the blind obedience that currently seems to be expected, though I suppose apathy may be a more apt description. He points out that some of the most influential people in history (specifically MLK, Gandhi, Jesus) only managed to do what they did by breaking the law, because sometimes laws need to be broken in order to be fixed or removed, that it's our job as citizens to remain (politically) active to keep our government in check, and ensure that special interests don't win by default after beating us into submission.
Cenk is an amazing speaker, and, to me at least, seems to be the person who will do the most to change the status quo with the way things are currently headed. We can't rely on politicians to act on our behalf (or, as one might call it, do their jobs), so that task will invariably fall to someone who knows what they're doing, and isn't afraid to take a stand. I don't see anyone else stepping up to the plate, do you?
