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.