Patriotism

When we think of patriotism, as we do every Fourth of July including this 250th anniversary of independence, it’s usually about the flag, the national anthem, the Founding Fathers, and the like. All well and good, but these are symbols of patriotism, while genuine patriotism is a love of country that comes from deep in the heart. 

Writing in the June 1 New Yorker, Arthur Krystal related a tale of genuine patriotism: Ten days after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the New York Mets played a home game with the Atlanta Braves. After the national anthem, players and coaches from both teams met near home plate with handshakes and hugs, certainly not the norm in professional baseball. Atlanta infielder Mark DeRosa later said, “It was the only game I ever played in from the time I was nine years old I didn’t mind losing.” Krystal concluded, “That, my friends, is patriotism.”

My own experience with heartfelt patriotism was on November 23, 1963, the day after President Kennedy’s assassination. I was doing my part-time college job in a big city hospital when I took a seldom-used stairwell and, glancing out a window as I reached the top, saw the American flag outside at half-staff. I’m not a crier, but I leaned against a wall and cried, partly out of sorrow for Kennedy’s family but mostly because America had lost a leader whose policies promised to make it “a more perfect union.”

As it turned out, Lyndon Johnson and a willing Congress got the job done, giving my country and yours Medicare/Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, two Civil Rights Acts, the Higher Education Act creating federally-insured student loans, and other provisions that made the country I loved even more lovable. I was proud to be an American. (Later, Richard Nixon’s lies, cover-ups, and “enemies list” seriously dented my pride, but the system worked, and Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.)

George Orwell wrote that patriotism is “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force it on other people.” A downside of patriotism is that it can cross the line into its ugly cousin nationalism, where an outsized sense of superiority can easily lead to a wish to indeed force itself on others—especially dangerous in a large, powerful country with the means to do so. More than 250 years ago, Voltaire concluded that “to be a good patriot one must often become the enemy of the rest of mankind.” 

Rather than go down the dark road of nationalism, American patriots can work to make our country even better with universal healthcare like every other rich country, with strong unions negotiating good wages, with excellent schools for every child, with enough affordable housing for everyone, with a more equitable distribution of wealth, and with a guaranteed right to easy and convenient voting for every citizen. Each of these improvements will benefit the common good. What could be more patriotic?

In 1940, songwriter Woodie Guthrie penned the lyrics for what many believe is the most patriotic folk song in American music. You know the tune, so sing it with me.

 

This land is your land, this land is my land,

From California to the New York island,

From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters,

This land was made for you and me.

 

Voting is the foundation of our freedom to choose. Be informed of the issues and candidates, be a patriot, and vote for who you think will most advance the common good. 

 

                                             CBS News: 

            Facts or Ideology?

Before TV, was radio, and CBS built a reputation for high quality news due partly to Edward R. Murrow’s reports from London during the 1940 Blitz. Murrow set a high standard of thorough research and accuracy that lives today through the Murrow Awards, prestigious recognitions for radio news excellence. 

With the advent of TV news in the 1950s, CBS continued its high standard with respected anchors including Kansas City native Walter Cronkite from 1962-1981. Hired by Murrow, Cronkite expanded evening news from 15 to 30 minutes. Willing to spend more on news than its competitors, CBS overtook NBC as the top rated newscast. A poll called Cronkite “the most trusted man in America.” 

CBS launched 60 Minutes in 1968 as a Sunday evening “news magazine,” and by 1976, it was the top-rated Sunday prime-time program in the country and highly profitable as well. Fifty years later, it still is. It’s also the longest-running TV program in U.S. history.

Now, 60 Minutes finds itself at the center of controversy. Trump has disliked the program for years, calling it “a dishonest political operative disguised as news.” When the program ran an interview with Kamala Harris before the 2024 election, he sued CBS News and its owner, Paramount, claiming it was edited unfairly to him. Paramount was eager to have Trump’s FCC approve a potentially profitable merger that would give control of CBS to billionaire and Trump ally David Ellison. Paramount settled the suit for $16 million, caving in to Trump as several universities had done to save their federal research grants. Both the 60 Minutes executive producer and the CBS news chief editor soon resigned and were replaced by people with limited experience in TV news but who clearly planned changes likely to please the new owner and Trump. 

The lesson had not yet been learned that the way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him. Sure enough, when talk-show host Stephen Colbert called the settlement “a big fat bribe,” CBS canceled his program, which was the most popular of the late night talk-shows. Five months later, the new chief news editor pulled a 60 Minutes segment, partly about Trump’s policies affecting Venezuelan migrants, on the day it was scheduled to air. 

The experienced reporter of the segment objected, calling the pulling a political move. Two other long-time reporters also objected to the new management’s disrespect for the freedom of the press to go where the facts lead regardless of political pressures. All three were fired. Political economist and former U.S. secretary of labor Robert Reich wrote that “the most successful television news broadcast in U.S. history is being dismantled because Trump doesn’t want America to know the truth.” And which trusted news source may fall next? David Ellison is in the process of acquiring CNN.

Distinguished New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote about editorial independence in the June 8 issue: “If the contemporary media scene has proved anything of late, it is that a reliably supportive proprietor is as rare as a cool breeze in August. The political and financial costs of backing journalism that challenges the honesty or the competence of the powerful can be . . . distinctly inconvenient. Some owners show their mettle for a spell, then find adequate reason to knuckle under; others have no intention of even pretending to do what is hard or what is right.” 

Writing to a friend in 1816, Thomas Jefferson concluded that “Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.” Reading is no longer the only way to be truthfully informed. All media must be free to inform us of the facts without fear or favor.