apologies for reposting material not my own...

... but some folks get paid to write eloquent rhetoric.
I'm not one of 'em.
The screenwriters of The American President, on the other hand...

Here goes: excerpts from President Andrew Shepard's speech, The American President:

"... America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.

Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.
..."

THAT is the America I learned in 8th-grade Civics!!!