I would agree with you about petty, malicious gossip. However, some things are too important to be left unsaid. If it were not for Samuel Adams and others, there may not have been an American Revolution. If there was not a Martin Luther King who spoke out against injustice, there may not have been the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up for me.”

--Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1945 

If ye love wealth better than liberty,
the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or your arms.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."

Samuel Adams 

There comes a time when even peace loving people have to fight. It seemed to me that far too many of us had forgotten the real issue in all of this - the people. More precisely, the American people - our Founding Fathers, our veterans, our military, our civil servants and even regular folk - those who have died or could die in the service of this country - in establishing, protecting and maintaining our freedom. If this isn't enough of a reason to go anywhere to fight anyone - to preserve the American way of life - then what is there left on this earth that matters at all? God help us!