'I for one, cannot believe that love of one's country must consist in blindness to its social faults, in deafness to its social discords, in inarticulation of its social wrongs. Neither can I believe that the mere accident of birth in a certain country or the mere scrap of a citizen's paper constitutes the love of country.''
These words, from a speech made 90 years ago, speak eloquently of an informedpatriotism, one based on the degree of freedom and social justice in a person's native or adopted country.
The speech was made in 1917 by the Russian-born American activist, feminist and anarchist Emma Goldman (1869-1940). While her advocacy of violence in pursuit of her causes is not to be applauded, the causes for which she stood -- in particular, gender equality, freely available birth control and the organization of labor -- have long been accepted and institutionalized by democratic societies around the world. (Goldman was incarcerated in the United States for two years due to her opposition to conscription during World War I, and was subsequently deported to Russia.)