I remember, many years ago, standing with my friends, being very earnest. We were reciting the Girl Scout promise. We were going to serve God and our country.

But where is God in our country?

Not in the part in which we stole from and killed our country’s indigenous people. Not when we stole, tortured and killed black slaves. Not when we sold Hitler his weaponry. Nor when we killed, tortured and toppled democratic governments in South America and Iran and replaced them with pro-business dictators. Not when we purposefully and falsely reported that our ships were fired on in the Gulf of Tonkin, thus starting the Vietnam War. Not when we sold Saddam Hussein the chemical weapons he used in the war against Iran and against those who would not support him. Not when we falsified information and started a war that has killed tens of thousands of people. Not when we used white phosphorus bombs in Fallujah, where we hideously killed and burned innocents and soldiers, and have constructed an army of Iraqis who allegedly carry out their own torture, a practice they learned twice, from Saddam and from us.

We need to put God, justice and love into our country, and to never agree to send our young people into battle to kill and maim and be killed and maimed.

And to never again allow ourselves to be nave.

That we always remember the words of Jefferson: “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”

Jenny Orr, West Paris