American Patriotism is about Self-Government & Fundamental Rights…not flag waving.

As for those who wear the USA flag on shirts and hats, however innocently, traditionally the Boy Scouts and military would consider such to be disrespectful. You don’t treat the flag like fashion. You raise it solemnly, silently acknowledging all that it symbolizes.

Our flag symbolizes our freedoms, not our uncritical support of whatever Administration happens to be in power; and so when I see liberals wear tee-shirts with upside-down American flags it makes me sad. When I see Neoconvervatives who never served in the military criticize Senator Obama for not wearing a (Made in China) American lapel pin at all times, it reminds me that we are confused. Patriotism in other countries might be like rooting for a football or baseball or basketball or soccer team: you’re either for ‘em or against ‘em, no matter what they do.

But America is and always has been first and foremost an idea, an ideal. Thomas Jefferson wrote a long criticism of slavery into the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Neo Nazis, or any ideology we might disagree with, have the same Freedom of Expression that we do. The media, however bought and paid for, has the right to speak truth to power without fear of retribution (in an age of blogging, this right is newly powerful, as it is newly independent). I love America like a brother or sister who might, and often, veer left or right of the razor’s edge of truth and integrity. So I criticize America, because America is by, for and of the people, and we have retained the right to criticize our self-government. But I do not disrespect America. I am a liberal. I am a American patriot. I am just another liberal American patriot, and I say here that the flag is as much mine as it is yours, and I say that the wisdom to vote for a lesser evil, for an imperfect man or woman is my most sacred of duties.

And so, tonight, this being Independence day, I’ll raise a microbrew and I’ll say—as an American Buddhist, free to worship in one of the rare governments that separates church and state—”God Bless America.” 

 

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