Thinking about July 4 tomorrow, patriotism, protest, how they do not contradict in times when one is troubled by the behavior of the government. Richard Kramer, the man whose memorial I attended yesterday had a great comment about this topic when he was a newly retired Lieutenant Colonel teaching political science and in charge of ROTC at the University of Texas during the protests against the war in Viet Nam. He instructed his students "Don't burn the flag, wash it." This is a man who lived by his philosophy, later speaking up in many scholarly settings against the war in Iraq.