I've had this idea for making t-shirts and things for a l o n g ass time and knew it would somehow intersect with cafepress so I finally decided to do something about it and made up a nifty cafepress shop where I started selling Great Mutant Skywheel t-shirts and stickers etc, and I realized that I wanted to start making bumper stickers to counteract the (perhaps now waning) tide of people defining "patriotism" in terms that I feel are actually antithetical to patriotism. So I had two ideas for slogans (we LOVE slogans) -

The first was: "Dissent: It's American
and the second: "Dissent is the only true measure of American freedom"

Now, I actually believe those things, but after watching "Bowling for Columbine", I'm struck by something else; something that Mate Hollos, a composition teacher I had in Hungary told me that I never really "got".

First a little background: I lived in Hungary from Oct 1988 - May 1989, studying music at the Franz Liszt Academy. This was shortly before the Berlin wall came down, while Hungary was still a socialist state. While talking about politics during a lesson, Mate (pronounced Mah Tay, like that tea drink) said this:
"You know, democracy and fascism run hand in hand." Now, I'm still not sure exactly what he meant, but I think it really means this: In a society where there is freedom of speech, thought and action (to the extent allowable by law) it is possible that "the people" may from time to time make decisions that are anathema to actual freedom" - i.e. granting greater power to the government with the side effect censorship and loss of freedom, under the guise of protecting freedom. It's a connundrum; how does one go about "protecting freedom?"

I was thinking about this relative to "Bowling for Columbine" because what should be strived for in making America a great place to be is making it a great place to disagree. There's more to say, but I'll sit on it for now.