Loyalty is a virtue. But loyalty can also become blind. There is a difference between standing by someone and defending everything they do. The first is loyalty. The second can mean abandoning judgment. Blind loyalty makes us defend before we understand and excuse what we would otherwise question. It can make a person, a group, or an institution seem beyond criticism.
Real loyalty does not require us to surrender our conscience. Sometimes, loyalty means speaking the truth when it is difficult, asking the uncomfortable question, or refusing to support what is wrong. A person who agrees with us is not necessarily loyal. Someone willing to tell us the truth, even when we do not want to hear it, may be more loyal than someone who always takes our side. No person or institution should be placed beyond scrutiny simply because we are loyal to them.
