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July 12, 2002
True American Patriotism
Contributed by Cynthia McCulloh:
I was talking with a friend the other day and said that in these times I was feeling fervently patriotic. I could tell by the silence on the other end of the phone that my friend was trying to reconcile what she knows to be my progressive political convictions with such a statement.The very concept of 'patriotism' has been so effectively bastardized to mean blind acceptence of whatever our government officials espouse, that the real meaning of patriotism is not just obscured, it is lost.
Our American patriotic heritage is steeped in the notion that active dissent is the citizen's first duty. To question, engage and challenge our govenment's actions and policies is the highest form of patriotism.
Unfortunatly, those who have dissenting opinions have been made to feel so defensive and fearful in these times that we have allowed the elemental concept of our country and all it must stand for to be 'marketed' into exactly the opposite of what it is.Words matter hugely...the flag and the word 'patriotism' have been used with stunning effectiveness to limit our public discourse on the most important issues of our time.
It is time to take back the word 'patriotism'. I have written more letters, talked about more issues and organized more in my community in the past six months than I have in the last ten years. I have never before felt so passionately 'patriotic' as I do now. I am passionate because I see the Bill of Rights threatened, and I see my democratic government failing. The sacred words, written in stone on our national monuments command me to engage and defend the principles upon which our country was built.
True American patriotism means dissent and participation. Instead of defensively validating the flag waving and rhetoric that bastardizes the meaning of American patriotism, we should boldly reclaim our that word 'patriotism', reclaim the flag, and reclaim Americanism itself as something for which we can be proud.
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