I really tried – I promise you I really did. All week long I have been thinking about what
I would like my first Holidailies entry to be about. Something outright creative? Something holiday-themed since today is the
first day of December? But each and
every day, I kept coming back to the one thing I am overwhelmingly feeling most
passionate and actually have something to say about: politics and the current
state our country is in.
Now, for those of you who do not know me, I will say this up
front: I am a middle-of-the-road Democrat.
That means while I lean left, it is not so simple to label me as such
since there are policies where my opinion would actually define me as more of a
Republican. So, for any of you out there
reading this who habitually disregard, disrespect and/or lump everybody
together, please stop reading and wasting my time and yours. Move on.
Really. Go back to whatever
single news source to which your unquestioning mind leads you.
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let me also say
that I know better than to try to figure out – at this point – why people voted
the way they did. And more importantly,
I know better than to try to get them to acknowledge that they’ve made a very
serious mistake. If they couldn’t see it
then, they cannot yet see it now so we will let time play that out.
More interesting to me at this very moment is to talk about Patriotism. Yes, with a capital “P”. You’ll see why
later. A quick wiki search reveals this
definition:
Patriotism is an emotional
attachment to a nation which an individual recognizes as their homeland. This
attachment, also known as national feeling or national pride, can be viewed in
terms of different features relating to one's own nation, including ethnic,
cultural, political or historical aspects.
What has been troubling me -- especially of late -- is the
accusation from many of our fellow citizens, that if a person criticizes our
country (on any topic) that one does
not love the country. And therefore, cannot be a patriot. I take issue with every step of this
not-so-logical deduction. First, a
person can criticize the country and still love it. In fact, one could argue that s/he could love
it even more than the complacent patriot because s/he cared enough and took the
time to try to improve upon it.
Secondly, does patriotism really = love anyway? What exactly are we loving? Go back to the definition: the most we can
really love is our personal experience and isn’t that very different depending
on who you are – age, socio-economic status, race, sex, education, heck – diet
even. You see what I am saying?
I read an article recently that discusses patriotism in
detail (see link below). This article states that there are four kinds of
patriotism. First, there is the Mafia
version. This is the kind that embraces
only strength – not goodness, or ideals.
The second type of patriotism has more of a national pride flavor; it is
a belief that America is infallible, inherently good, and a nation that all
others should and do look up to. The third
kind connects love of country to ideals.
However, this definition acknowledges the disparity between America’s
ideals and its reality. The last
category of patriotism looks more like anti-patriotism: this group focuses only on the failures of
America to live up to its ideals – basically viewing the country as one big
disappointment.
Now back to that capital “P”. I feel like the people whose definition of
patriotism is either the Mafia version or the national pride version consider
themselves Patriots like it’s some sort of third political platform or a club
or team or better yet, a religion. They
and they alone own it.
It is my observation that the persons who scream the loudest
“if you don’t love this country and love it as it is, get out” regard
themselves as Patriots. Literally. On
paper. Using that word exactly. They
looooovvvvee this country with all of their hearts (well, at least whatever it
is they think they know the country to be). They worship the American flag and
scorn anybody who would dare light it afire.
(Hello freedoms of speech and expression?) Just for the record, it makes
me very uncomfortable and upset if I see video of someone doing that but my
go-to reaction is wondering what the heck made them so upset that they felt the
need to do that, not ‘how dare they do that’.
That attitude is a very dangerous one.
What I have been mulling over here really is a recognition
that we, as Americans, are not even starting in the same place with the same
definition. Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we want? Big questions that are getting harder than
ever to answer. I could wrap this up
nicely with some platitude, but I think it is more honest to leave the reader
hanging because that is reality right now – we are hanging.
Good thoughts
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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