Patriotism is Alive and Well - What Patriotism means to me as an American

[Warph]

I subscribe to a patriotism rooted in ideas that in turn gave birth to a country, but it's the ideas that I think of when I'm feeling patriotic.  I'm a patriotic American because I revere the ideas that motivated the Founders and compelled them, in many instances, to put their lives, fortunes and sacred honor on the line. 



What ideas?   Read the Declaration of Independence again.  Or, if you're like most Americans these days, read it for the very first time.  It's all there.  All men are created equal.  They are endowed not by government but by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.  Premier among those rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Government must be limited to protecting the peace and preserving our liberties, and doing so through the consent of the governed.  It's the right of a free people to rid themselves of a government that becomes destructive of those ends, as our Founders did in a supreme act of courage and defiance more than two hundred years ago. 

Call it freedom.  Call it liberty.  Call it whatever you want, but it's the bedrock on which this nation was founded and from which we stray at our peril.  It's what has defined us as Americans.  It's what almost everyone who has ever lived on this planet has yearned for, though only a few have ever risen above selfishness, ignorance, or barbarism to attain it.  It makes life worth living, which means it's worth fighting and dying for. 

I know that this concept of patriotism puts an "American" spin on the term.  But I don't know how to be patriotic for Uganda or Paraguay.  I hope the Ugandans and Paraguayans have lofty ideals they celebrate when they feel patriotic, but whether or not they do is a question you'll have to ask them.  I can only tell you what patriotism means to me as an American.

I understand that America has often fallen short of the superlative ideas expressed in the Declaration.  That hasn't diminished my reverence for them, nor has it dimmed my hope that future generations of Americans will be re-inspired by them. 

This brand of patriotism, in fact, gets me through the roughest and most cynical of times.  My patriotism did not die when Bill Clinton debased the Oval Office with a young intern.  My patriotism is never affected by any politician's failures, or any shortcoming of some government policy, or any slump in the economy or stock market.... and God knows, I've lost my share in the market this year.  I've never felt my patriotism to be for sale or up for a vote.  I never cease to get that "rush" that comes from watching Old Glory flapping in the breeze, no matter how far today's generations have departed from the original meaning of those stars and stripes.  No outcome of any election, no matter how adverse, makes me feel any less devoted to the ideals our Founders put to pen in 1776. 

Believe me, as life's experiences mount, the wisdom of what giants like Jefferson, Adams and Madison bestowed upon us becomes ever more apparent to me.  I get more fired up than ever to help others come to appreciate the same things. 

During a visit to the land of my mothers ancestors, Scotland, I came across a few very old words that gave me pause.  Though they preceded our Declaration of Independence by 456 years, and come from three thousand miles away, I can hardly think of anything ever written here that more powerfully stirs in me the patriotism I've defined above.  In 1320, in an effort to explain why they had spent the previous thirty years in bloody battle to expel the invading English, Scottish leaders ended their Declaration of Arbroath with this line: "It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life."

Freedom—understanding it, living it, and teaching it.  That, my friends, is what patriotism should mean to each of us today.

Happy Flag Day.... Warph

[larryJ]

Thanks for the post, Warph.  I was reading it while working on my first cup of coffee and my brain was still trying to make it down the hall to the recliner so I did not realize that today was flag day.  So after the second cup my flag will be up.  

Every year our family (wife, me, kids, in-laws) attend a rodeo that is held nearby.  It is part of the PRCA and is a lot of fun to watch.  When my son first started dating his wife to be, she attended the rodeo with us for the first time.  The rodeo opened with the cowboy on a horse riding around the arena with the American flag while the PA system blasted "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies and amber waves of grain" and then all the participants riding out and forming a line while he PA system blasted out the Star Spangled Banner.  Every year, I stand and place my hand over my heart and tears come to my eyes.  Why?  Because I think of the many thousands who died so that I could have the freedom to stand there without being forced to by someone else.  My daughter-in-law to be, noticed the tears (I wasn't openly crying, just wet eyes) and mentioned it my son.  He told her not to worry that it was that way every year.  

That is what patriotism means to me.  The flag that I will fly today is one that is carefully wrapped most of the year to keep it from getting dirty.  It is one of those flags that was flown over the capitol building in Washington, D.C. that we asked our Congressman to get for us.  


Thanks again Warph

Larryj

[Teresa]

I cry every time too Larry........

[indygal]

Earl of Kilmarnock, eh? Well, Diane, methinks some of your predecessors probably shared a pint or two (or perhaps a Drambuie?) with some of mine. My father's lineage hails from Kilmarnock/Kilwinning. Family legend has it that some of our kin helped shelter Bonny Prince Charlie during his escape and he repaid them with the recipe for Drambuie. Probably isn't true, but it sure makes for interesting dinner table talk.

As for patriotism, I find that it's a sense/feeling that's often difficult to put into words but can bring me to tears. What recently disturbed me was the insistence by some that if people weren't wearing flag pins that they somehow were unpatriotic or disloyal to the U.S. How we choose to display our patriotism (or not) is just one of our many freedoms that must not be abused.

[larryJ]

Okay made me look.  Check it out.

www.drambuie.com

Larryj

[larryJ]

Getting back to patriotism----At the very same rodeo there were some Mexicans who obviously had not been in the country long.  When the National Anthem was played everyone stood and many (not all) placed their hands over their hearts and of course hats were removed.  The three Mexicans were not aware of the hat removal idea and did not remove theirs.  Some veterans standing a few rows back hollered at them, "COVER!"  Now, for those of you who may not be familiar with this phrase (cover) it is a term used by the military to remind someone to either remove their hat (cover) or put it on.  At one point I thought that there was going to be an instant removal of three Mexicans from the audience, but they decided that maybe they had done something wrong and left on their own accord.  Those veterans were showing their patriotism.

I notice that there are many who do not place their hand over their heart.  I was always taught that this is a proper salute to the flag unless you are in uniform which requires a hand salute.  If you wish to see a good example of this, watch the players and the crowd when they sing the National Anthem today at the basketball game.

Larryj

[Wilma]

When I started school, minny, minny years ago, the flag salute was given with the hand at the brow.  I don't know when it was changed.  Daughter says that when she started to school the hand was over the heart, but in the military, it was with the hand at the brow.  I don't think enough emphasis is put on patriotism now or enough of the proper procedure is taught in school.

[larryJ]

Wilma, I might be wrong but the hand was always over the heart except for like I said military were required to salute.  However, in recalling my childhood, I do remember saluting the flag with two fingers at the brow because I was in Boy Scouts.  I seem to remember that maybe women were required to salute the flag with fingers at the brow.  Maybe somebody can find out about this.

I don't know about schools anywhere else, but all schools here have the students stand and face the flag and pledge allegiance to it.  Even at my granddaughter's preschool there is a pledge of allegiance to the flag at 9:00 AM each morning and because this is a church preschool, they also recite a pledge of allegiance to the Christian flag. 

In roaming around the Internet, I found this.

Our standard; Old Glory ; a symbol of Freedom; wherever she waves there is respect, because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts, [b]Freedom is every body's job. [/b]
It is from Red Skelton's pledge of allegiance.

Larryj

[indygal]

Thanks for the link, larryj. I'll have to check with Dad to see if the Mackinnons were any part of the Love or Bannerman lineage.

[Jo McDonald]

Every time I see an American flag waving in the breeze, I get a huge lump in my throat.

And, Yes, Wilma, I too remember when we started to school, we were taught to salute the flag with our right hand at our brow, as we gave allegiance to our flag every morning   I look around when the flag is displayed and it saddens me to see so many that do not pay respect
to our flag.