Progressive Patriot Award 3/2/08

What is a Progressive Patriot? In Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau wrote the following:
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others -- as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders -- serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as the rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few -- as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men -- serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.
So, progressive patriots are who serves the state with their consciences.
Politics Plus introduced the Progressive Patriot Award to honor bloggers with the courage to stand up and oppose those in power when they abuse that power to the detriment of the people and fight for progressive ideals, such as human rights, tolerance, non-aggression, freedom and equity. If you receive this award from me or another blogger, please do the following to accept it. Display the award graphic of your choice (or both) proudly in your sidebar. Copy this paragraph (more, if you wish) into a post on your blog. In that post, pass the award on to a minimum of three and a maximum of five deserving bloggers. If you receive the award from another blogger, reply to this message HERE with a comment including the name and URL of your blog and the identity and date of the blogger who awarded it to you. You will then be added to a special blogroll of Progressive Patriots.

*I was recommended for this award by it's AuthorTomCat which I first declined because my goal is to make a difference period. Any effort that gets in the way of that is not for me. After being walked through what to do by Tom I figured like it or not we are a community and those that are unique and make a difference must be recognized and know they are a valuable part of the whole! To that end whether they partake or hot my nominees are:

Anok

betmo's blogspot

Dave Dubya's free speech zone

Dusty

Polishifter

I limit myself as to those I converse with only because I want and try to hold daily dialogs with those I link to and my time is a lot more limited than their wide knowledge and spectrum of interest. I leave you to make your own evaluation but these sites represent our efforts full circle and deserve my accolades! I only wish I could have picked everyone on my Blog roll!