"To criticize one's country is to do it a service and pay it a compliment. It is a service because it may spur the country to do better than it is doing; it is a compliment because it evidences a belief that the country can do better than it is doing...in a democracy dissent is an act of faith...it is an act of patriotism, a higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals of national adulation."
William Fulbright (hardly a flawless man, but think he hits this memorial day-brouhaha right on the head)