Patriotism

Patriotism is a word that has been much-bandied about in the last eight years, and the last six months or so in particular.

What does it mean to me?

To me, patriotism is the willingness to sacrifice yourself for something greater than yourself.

Patriotism is not wearing a flag pin in your lapel. That's just a way to say "Yeah, I'm patriotic," without actually doing anything.

Patriotism is not blindly following someone because he happens to be in charge. Patriotism requires keeping an eye on the big picture.

(An aside here... soldiers these days are trained to vet every order and if it's illegal or immoral it is their right, their duty, to not carry out that order. If a soldier carries out an illegal or immoral order, the soldier is held responsible for that act. I don't know, but are there consequences that carry back to the officer that issued that order? Doesn't he or she carry responsibility for the act as well? I really don't know... someone let me know.)

But guess what... there is no implicit morality in patriotism. Suicide bombers are about as patriotic as they come, but I think we can all agree that blowing yourself up, along with your innocent neighbors, is an immoral act.

No, we mustn't fall into the trap of thinking that to be patriotic is to love America. Lots of patriots out there hate our guts.

For an American, patriotism is not hating muslims. This country was founded on the principle that religion is a personal choice. Many terrorists are muslim but to hate muslims in general, because of that, is not logical. The nearest this country has ever come to suffering an attack from a WMD was not that long ago. A man in Belfast, Maine had the makings of a dirty bomb (uranium, thorium, highly toxic beryllium powder and various explosive components). These substances were only discovered by the FBI because the man was extremely abusive to his wife, who eventually shot and killed him last December.

Guess what? The guy was not a muslim... he was a neo-nazi. A white supremacist.

There are crazies everywhere, of every religion. America is not served by its citizens hating others based on their religion, race or whatever. It is only harmed.

Patriotism means sacrifice. Sacrifice is not very popular in America these days, but I think it's making a comeback. Greed and commercialism make this country look amoral to the rest of the world (not to mention many of its own citizens). We need to get back to the idea that our country can be greater than any one of us, greater even than the sum of all of us.