Freedom of Speech

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/opinion/15thu4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The article I chose was about a Women's bridge team that displayed a sign that said "We did not vote for Bush." at an awards ceremony in Shanghai. This offended some people, and some felt as if it was an unecessary display of political feeling. I thought this was an interesting article because it involved people showing negative feelings about their own country in front of people from other countries. Do people have the duty to have loyalty to their country? Is putting your own country's president down in front of people from other countries a disloyal thing to do? In the article it states that "To hold up a sign like that is an act of disassociation, not from this country, but from the failed policies of this president." Is it a bad thing to want to make it known that you disagree with certain things and actions that the president has done. Is this breaking freedom of speech? I find this difficult to decide because if you are not proud and disagree with the actions of what your president, you should be allowed to pubicly display your opinion. In this particular situation, I think it was a little unecessary to do this because they are at a Bridge tournament, and I think as a citizen of a country you should have some respect for the president of your own country. However it is okay to not want to be associated with actions that represent your country and you as an American citizen and display that opinion.