(no subject)

[xiphias]

I was just surfing through friends-of-friends and saw an entry on why someone did not consider themselves to be patriotic.

Now, I do consider myself to be patriotic. even though I'm bothered by everything that this person is bothered by.

Here's a major difference, though:

When the President says pretty much anything, this person feels embarrassed to be an American.

But me, when the President says pretty much anything, I feel embarrassed that the President is an American.

That, I think, sums it up. I am a patriot. I believe that America has in it much that is great, and believe that anything that falls short of that -- any time that we torture prisoners or send them abroad to be tortured, any time that we curtail civil liberties for greater safety (whether or not it actually works to make us safe), any time that we don't act in an open, free, and equal manner, that, in those cases, that's us not living up to what it means to be American.

And we fall short of those things so often that I can see how others can start to have trouble believing that those ideals ARE what "American" means.

But, for me, that makes it even more important to be patriotic -- to know that those are the things that we believe in and work for.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Wow. Um. Whoa.

I shall go away and think a lot, now.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

I really like that way of looking at it. (I've been more embarrassed by the 50% of voters who supported Bush than the man himself, really; I do not like that the country is so radically divided over what it means to be patriotic, and American. You're absolutely right, however, that "patriotism" means continuing to fight for those ideals.)

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

very well said. i couldn't agree more.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Mike Doughty said it all for me in his song Move On:

I love my country so much,
like an exasperating friend.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Chuckle; the Grateful Dead song "Tons of Steel" has become a symbol of America to me.

"It's one hell of an understatement to say she can get mean
"She's temperamental, more a bitch than a machine"

So, it's time to start dragging my feet, if that's all I have left to do :-).

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I tend to say that I love America even though sometimes I can't stand the United States.

patriotism

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i can see why you prefer to feel that way, and it makes perfect sense from the inside. you don't want somebody else to redefine something that's dear to you.

but, from the outside, actions speak louder than words. for anyone who has to interact with "america" your ideal isn't what "american" means, the unpleasant reality is. especially when half the country votes in support of that reality.

that so many people support the neocon agenda with their vote, that changed my view of the US a lot. heck, it changed my view of democracy.

Re: patriotism

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yes. But they're all wrong. The fact that there's a lot of them doesn't make them right.

Re: patriotism

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Not just wrong, but *lied to*. Lied to carefully and convincingly and well.

It's an extremely important point.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I was thinking a lot about this when I knew that GWB would be relected, and lately again, because of my son, Ben. He graduates next year and currently has dual citzenship. It was a different sort of commitment each time I did this. It isn't, for me, an easy choice.

I believed, and I still do, that the country is the sum of it's speaking and acting people. Each time I have thought about it, it has seemed more and more important to stay, and to work towards making it what it could be, even if my part of that is very small.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

for me, that makes it even more important to be patriotic -- to know that those are the things that we believe in and work for.

Yes, and to try and transmit those things to people who don't believe in them yet. That's a big part of what Scottish patriotism is about for me - about standing up and saying that valuing education and freedom and inclusion and equal opportunity is part of who we are, bred in the bone, and that we need to be proud of that and teach it to the next generation.

[thataway.livejournal.com]

very well said.