Patriotism Part 1

Yesterday I heard news about the new process the government is trying out in order to screen airline passengers to try to assess their “threat level,” based on their credit history and a few other things. I didn’t really say anything yesterday because I didn’t really hear more than the tail end of a news story. Today I heard more, and this is what I think about the whole situation.

In fact, this goes way beyond just getting categorized according to our “threat levels” when we fly. Or being randomly stopped going into airports. Or having the Department of Homeland Defense issuing “threat levels.” This is something that directly affects the very core that our nation was built on.

Patriotism is something that Americans in general didn’t really think about too much before 9/11. People equated being an American and shooting off fireworks on the 4th of July with being “patriotic.” After 9/11, the term “patriotism” took on a bit of a different definition. After that, “patriotism” seemed to mean flying a flag and having a “God Bless America” bumper sticker on at least one vehicle. But I think recent events are showing just who exactly the true patriots are, and who they aren’t.

With the threat of a seemingly imminent war with Iraq, many people have taken it upon themselves to try and protest a war. They disregard the fact that the President gets more intelligence (that is of far greater quality than they will ever see) during his breakfast than most “well informed” Americans will see in a lifetime. But because of this, many from the “conservative” camp have taken to call these people un-patriotic. Which in turn has cause the protesters (who many times tend to come from the liberal end of the spectrum) to reply with the usual, “Who are you to say that I’m unpatriotic?”

So here is what I think, and I think that the title of “patriot” falls on very few people at all.

If you think back to the people who founded our country, the ones who history has looked down on as “patriots,” and who in fact became the definition of the term itself, you will find something totally at odds with many who live in America today.

If you had to sum up in a single word what the founders of our nation were seeking when they decided to rebel against England, what was it? It was freedom. Not just freedom to do one thing or another, but pure, unadulterated freedom.

The people who founded this country, and also those whose names have been forgotten by history because they gave their lives for something that they sought so dearly, knew what it was like to be oppressed. They knew what it was like to have the king and his government intricately involved in their daily lives, and they were sick of it. They were more than sick of it, they loathed not having the freedom that they thought everyone deserved.

What did they do? They risked everything. The founders got together militias, organized a shabby form of leadership, and decided to fight against one of the most powerful nations on the earth at the time.

These are the people whose patriotism has graced the pages of history for the past 250 years.

How is patriotism from then different from “patriotism” of today? How can you tell who the true patriots are today (if indeed there are any)?

As I said at the beginning, the recent infringements on freedom are an indicator. Today, people are willing to give up certain freedoms in order to FEEL safe. They justify this by saying things to the effect of, “I have nothing to hide, so I don’t mind it.” These people would trade their freedoms, even though they seem to think that those things they’re trading are trivial and insignificant, for safety (or the illusion of it).

And they don’t want their patriotism questioned.

I wonder what the founders of the nation would say to that. I wonder how those who were the TRUE patriots, and who knew what it was like to live without most of the freedoms that we enjoy every day and don’t think twice about, would feel about these wannabe-patriots being so willing to give up these freedoms.

The people who founded our country had lived in oppression for years and years. They had lived with it for so long, and hated it with such intensity, that they were willing to risk everything in order to gain it. Not only did they value having freedom above the safety of themselves and their families, they even went to war against nearly impossible odds and put themselves in danger just to have the chance to be free.

Do you see that? They put the value of freedom above the value of safety. They knowingly put themselves in harms way in order to gain freedom for them, their families, and those who would come after them.

Those were the true patriots. The ones whose patriotism hasn’t been eroded by the passage of time.

Today we have live in a country full of people who have never known what it was like to live under an oppressive or controlling government. Here we have a nation of people who are ready to take freedoms that they were born with (because of the sacrifices of those hundreds of years before), and trade them in for the illusion of safety. They are willing to take everything the founders of this nation cared for, fought for, and died for, and trade it for something that the founders were willing to give up in order to gain what WE are so ready and willing to give up.

(see part 2 for the rest)