Several thousand of us thundered to our feet for the national anthem at a recent college graduation. Predictably, these types of events are choked with the emotion of life's passages. I had been observing parents on the bleachers hugging family members and wincing back tears. The graduates on the field, roasting in dark caps and gowns, excitedly waved cell phones as they located their families, while others fought sleep and hangovers.
Yet the instant the band struck up the anthem, the entire crowd stood and morphed into a stadium of reluctant zombies. Operating on autopilot, I began to sing. Keep in mind that me singing is not a pretty sound. God didn't grant me a set of pipes. This was made more obvious by the fact that I was seated in a box with strangers, none of whom knew one another well, so it was... um.... really quiet except for me. My voice tapered off as I panned around the room observing the group. We looked sheepish, uncomfortable, as if it was uncool to be enthusiastic or patriotic at this moment. In short order I ended up mouthing the words like everyone else. I had succumbed to peer pressure. Why had I suddenly felt foolish?
What happened to the swollen sense of national pride that burst forth like a seed pod after September 11th? Flags decorated lawns and overpasses, car bumpers and hats. Hands were placed firmly over hearts, red white and blue everything sprouted like hives. More than ten years later, we are tentative patriots. We gauge our neighbors' politics, we stick a finger in the air to test the atmosphere before we consider declaring that we love our country, despite its warts and fault lines.
Who remembers the needle hitting the record over the classroom loudspeaker in elementary school? "Oh say can you see..." standing straight, one sock up and one down, chest out, facing the flag hanging from a pine pole in the corner. It was an accomplishment to have memorized the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance. Saying the rote words gave me a sense of belonging to a greater whole, a pride in our country and all that it stood for.
Things got upended in the 70s. It was a decade of turmoil, intent on throwing off the shackles of convention and complacency. Authority figures became "the man," cops become "pigs" and when the boy next door's draft number was up, brothers and sons and boyfriends marched off to Vietnam and some of them didn't come back. And those that did were forever altered by the act of war and shown our country's collective back. They were challenged and spit on, their sacrifice questioned. They learned to hide their service like a jagged scar.
And as the decades ticked on, wars and conflicts came and went and civilization progressed in some ways and devolved in others. We lost a healthy respect for many things: our elders, appropriate discipline, boundaries and manners, sharing, saving, re-using, home-made, hand-me-downs and parenting with consequences, not just blind indulgence. We downgraded the value of military service, the contribution of teachers and the virtue of stay-at-home mothers. Celebrities with sex tapes became our aspirational heroes and we coveted anything bigger and newer: houses, cars, wardrobes and helpings. Economize became supersize. Our country settled into a disjointed, somewhat cagey relationship with national pride. Today, we pull it out when it suits, as convenient as the windshield Police Benefit Association sticker that can help us wriggle out of a speeding ticket.
It's not that we aren't grateful for living here. It's more that we tend to forget just what we have to be thankful for. Political schisms and the inability to compromise in Washington, the economic flat line, the drain of the wars -- we have many reasons to feel lackluster about the United States. There are always things to criticize, that's the cheap shot. Thank God we live in a society where we can. But somehow, we've arrived at a place where national pride feels shameful, like joining a cult or participating in a skinhead rally.
I know that patriotism isn't just about standing at attention in front of a flag. Real national pride is about standing up and acting. What differentiates a good country from a GREAT country is its ability and desire to take care of its own. This means not just the less than 1% of our population who volunteered to walk into the crucible in Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times, but the millions who fought in Vietnam, Korea and WWII. When America needed them they answered the call.
While we are busy as a country, a community and as families honoring our veterans this July 4th, there is one thing we can all do. When you hear the national anthem or the flag marches past you, take a moment to reflect on all of the things that are right and good about America.
Because I think we've lost something by not raising our collective voices at a ball park, a public dinner, a ceremony, wherever we are asked to sing the anthem. I think that's precisely the kind of thing that connects us, black, white, Hispanic, Muslim, Buddhist, Catholic, Jewish, Atheist, whatever -- when we gather together with one unified voice. Focusing for a moment on national pride allows our crazy quilt of a country to lay down our arms, set aside our anger and reflect how the whole is so much greater and more powerful than the sum of its parts.
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Veterans and Memorial Day are veteran days for the fallen. The 4th is to celeberate LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS which NONE OF THESE WARS come close.
"Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind."
Written by a 21 year old Bob Dillon in 1962 and still more 21 year olds fall and have their limb blown away in the wind THEY SHOULD HAVE HEARD long ago.
Soon the Drones will replace the volunteer and the WAR DRUMS will never sease as the GREED is endless and only THE RULE OF LAW and the ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW will stop the GREEDY, OVERACTIVE CIA and MILITARY
http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/153098/police_or_paramilitary_forces_the_militarization_of_american_law_enforcement/
One more point: loving your own country doesn't mean that you have to hate all others (as some here believe).
I doubt most American can read the 2 paragraphs of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE or the few pages of the CONSTITUTION
Because they sure in the HELL don't know what the revolution was fought FOR, the rule of law of America or why the Statue of LIberty uses the word LIBERTY
And NOT "open door" to any body because the more the merry, we like low wages and higher prices. COME ON COME ALL.
FILL our sewers, USE up our water, SELL more and the so the RICH GET RICHER
Just like there are almost more Black Cacaus's, Women's Lib and Gay organizations than there are any breach of lost rights to those group. All chasing Government Grants and dollars.
Almost as bad as the Capitalist getting 90% of gross income while those who do the work get only 6%
And our PRESIDENT say the Capitalist create the JOBS...
NO MORE than WORKERS create JOBS by spending their WAGES from JOBS on GOODS and SERVICES workers produce.
While more CAPITALIST trades stock and invest in IPO by $300,000,000 PER DAY so our last 2 presidence give them a TAX CUT
I can love the VALUES American stood for, the LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT of HAPPINESS
Being ONE who volunteered to serve my COUNTRY, I wil never salute a FLAG of a Nation State the does Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan until it POLITICIAN and MASS PATRIOTS start SUPPORTING those VALUES and quit DENYING those values to people in their OWN CUNTRIES
HOW DARE YOU...support or serve SUCH CAUSES. Will you ever learn what Being American is all about. You are all destroy America by being SHEEP and DO or DYING
THINK!
There are two kinds of American, at this point. Those who see patriotism as a kind of blind leap of faith, like believing in magical Bronze Age superheroes because their book is still in print -- and those who have come to see patriotism as a contract that only the authorities are allowed to break.
Me, I'm not real hot on the authorities telling us to clap longer and sing louder. Build some new schools, defend our real freedoms, not our corporate freedoms, and resist the urge to wage wars of convenience, and you'll get me on my feet.
These days, patriotism of the anthem-singing, pledge of allegiance type feels too much like nostalgia for a better time that never really happened.
As for why? Read you history of 1920 Western discovery of OIL and our DICTATORSHIP CREATION.
The ALLIES will never surrender the ME OIL even afte the USA quits consuming the cheapest OIL in the world. It is the worlds wealth and mililtary power AND will always be
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html
That said, we can and do still love our country very much. We just think (nope, we know) that blind obedience is stupid.
Giving away our jobs to other nations, and encouraging it. Taxing wealthy people less than average people. Sending us to endless and pointless wars for no reason. Jingoistic right wing and left wing extremists who have taken over the media and driven everyone else away from having an interest in their government. A government that is out to screw over anyone it can for whatever pathetic reason it could. People having to get 3 jobs to support a small family. Utter paralysis or inability to solve anyone's problems. Destructive partisan behaviors that turn everyone off. Basically getting worthlessly strip searched when you step on a plane.
How on Earth could patriotism NOT disappear? What is there to be patrotic about? Our torturing of people? Our wonderful economy? Being bankrupted by a defense industry while people go hungry and die from lack of health care? Corporations are people?
What is there left to be patriotic of?
I always had a hard time showing any form of patriotism (here, there, anywhere) as I often found it theatrical, empty of meaning and.....a throw back to Franco's fascism.
Work hard, try not to hurt anybody, be fair, be just, help wheh you can...and WHEN and IF it is truly needed, defend the nation. Beyond that....All just theatrics for the feel-good-in-the-belly-crowd.
PS: The exception being the military. After all, flags are battle emblems, which is were they originated.