Thought for today.

This is your country, the one to which you stood up and pledged allegiance every morning from the first grade through high school and city council meetings, and about which you proudly sang at sporting events.

Your country was the one that you knew, without a doubt, was the best in the world because it championed justice and fairness. It was the only place you knew that actively tried to improve itself, from ending racism to developing the best social programs which helped those who couldn't help themselves. It was the one place you knew had the best educational system, the best healthcare, and the best research in technology, medicine and other sciences.

Overall, it had the best philosophers, the best religious tolerance and freedom, and some of the most beautiful natural scenery from sea to warming sea.

It was, essentially, the best place on Earth.

In five short years, a small band of greedy, self-serving, Americans-In-Name-Only criminals have done one heckofa job in partly destroying everything mentioned above.

The latest accomplishments of these AINOs include the addition of torture as a legally acceptable practice and the elimination of a person's right of habeas corpus.

As long as we who repeatedly pledged our allegiance continue to elect these types of AINOs into power, the destruction will continue, until there'll be nothing left to pledge to, except literally the flag waving in front of your face and maybe the pole holding it.