PATRIOTISM - A VIRTUE OR LIMITATION

Recently I heard "Rushed Limbo" (you know who I mean) say on the radio at 9 AM, Democrats hate soldiers and it's so unfair that the service men are going to come home to nothing because the Democrats hate soldiers. Not the first time I've heard this man do his insane rant designed to confuse and abuse reason. Nothing could be further from the truth I thought; all of us, everyone of us feels the incredible sense of loss and heartache over the in many cases late teen, early '20's soldiers whose lives have been lost or will never be the same. The Post Traumatic Stress indicator of perhaps 49% of the soldiers who will admit to symptoms of PTSD are only the tip of the iceberg they say, because in the military if you admit to that form of fragility or damage, you could be put out of the military poste haste or at least have your function limited and diminished. No Democrats don't hate Soldiers, they hate the lies that sent them to do duty that has been destructive hurting the people we supposedly are helping beyond scope and measure; they hate the poor care and respect the soldiers receive upon their homecomings; they hate the lack of standards that allowed in soldiers who are not equipped to deal with the war, barely able to function and seeing poor alternatives outside the military getting in because of the limited entry standards.
Patriotism is a word that is being cast about to attempt to reduce the value of the distinctions of individuality which is what this country was based on. Anybody who didn't read or see on HBO John Adams ought to do whatever it takes to take in the information of what actually patriotism looks like. It has rough edges, it is combative, it is the willingness to see where mistakes have been made - mistakes are a fact, it's the admitting and cleaning up that makes for courage. Time's article by Richard Stengel on The New Patriotism makes the distinction between the conservative and liberal strains of what is definited as patriotism and through which they debate their politics. "The True Patriot" by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer is the New Patriotism means appreciating what's great about our country but what it takes to creat and sustain greatness.

Paternalism is not necessary patriotic and on Father's Day on NPR, there was an amazing program discussing both Obama and McCain's relationships with their fathers on tape from their books on their fathers. So different and so much the same. McCain's Admiral father whose father was an Admiral was a hero figure not often present with his family in naval life. But the father's presence in spirit as the moral judge of how McCain measured his own conduct was a primary influence sustained all the way through his POW capture and release. It was noted that his father ordered the bombing over the area where he was known to be a POW. McCain felt privileged with having his father as a presence in his life, even though their contact was limited and in his dad's later years he was exposed to what his father became, somewhat bitter and alcoholic and a man he couldn't relate to or identify when McCain was in his company during those times. The relationship with his father he credited with the hold he had over himself of not wanting to disappoint his father or let his country down irregardless of whatever they did to him, in prison.
Obama's father was a Head man in Kenya, and therefore Obama was a prince in the tribal group where his father lived, Obama reports in the tape of his book The Dreams of My Father. He was taken away by his mother to the US and had no contact with his father and in the absence of that contact, he made up who his father was with family stories. These stories had him take on rigorous moral standards for himself pleasing his grandparents and mother, but actually designed to meet the height of strength that he attributed to his father. When his father died, he returned to his father's country and there he heard different stories about who his father was: am embittered man who turned to drink in the losses that were the mainstay of his later years.

In both cases, the imagined status of the father propelled the sons to take on strong moral stances, higher and harder positions in valuing service and patriotism. McCain has had the reputation of a Maverick, a loner who doesn't fit it, not a very popular Republican candidate with only 33% of the Republican donors coming through for him because of his reliance not on the ideals of other people's interpretion of what is right, but marking his own territory. Obama, mixed race child of a single mother has a wider and more inclusive interpretation and perspective. Both have taken on the view of America having a greatness of purpose, but defining what their role will be is the history we are about to see unfold.

Each of us are patriots, back to the John Adams book, to the degree we work to see our truth and act in ways that demonstrate that democracy exists simply because we say so. It is a concept we fill out by how we see and act out our view of how we see the world and the responsibility we take to bring about the elements of the Declaration of Independence. It lives through us or not at all. Pretty scairy stuff, and something to be excited about in this election.
Happy 4th of July!