In 2002, I wrote this:
I STARTED TO WRITE ABOUT VETERAN’S DAY…
…and to thank the veterans alive and dead for protecting me and mine.
And worried that what I wrote kept coming out sounding either too qualified or would be interpreted as being too nationalistic.
And I realized something about my own thinking, a basic principle I’ll set out as a guiding point for the Democrats and the Left in general as they try and figure out the next act in this drama we are in.
First, you have to love America.
This isn’t a perfect country. I think it’s the best county; I’ve debated this with commenters before, and I’ll point out that while people worldwide tend to vote with their feet, there may be other (economic) attractions that pull them. But there are virtues here which far outweigh any sins. And I’ll start with the virtue of hope.
The hope of the immigrants, abandoning their farms and security for a new place here.
The hope of the settlers, walking across Death Valley, burying their dead as they went.
The hope of the ‘folks’ who moved to California after the war.
The hope of the two Latino kids doing their Computer Science homework at Starbucks’.
I love this country, my country, my people. And those who attack her…from guerilla cells, boardrooms, or their comfy chairs in expensive restaurants…better watch out.
I don’t get a clear sense that my fellow liberals feel the same way. And if so, why should ‘the folks’ follow them? Why are we worthy of the support of a nation that we don’t support?
So let me suggest an axiom for the New Model Democrats:
America is a great goddamn country, and we’re both going to defend it from those who attack it and fight to make it better.
And for everyone who is going to comment and remind me that ‘all liberals already do that’…no they don’t. Not when the Chancellor has to intervene at U.C. Berkeley to get ‘permission’ for American flags to be flown and red-white-and-blue ribbons to be worn. Not when the strongest voices in liberalism give lip service to responding to an attack on our citizens on our soil.
Loving this country isn’t the same thing as jingoism; it isn’t the same thing as imperialism; it isn’t the same thing as blind support of the worst traits of our government or our people.
It starts with recognizing the best traits, and there are a hell of a lot of them.
They were worth defending in my father’s time, and they are worth defending today.
So thanks, veterans. Thanks soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen. Thanks for doing your jobs and I hope you all come home hale and whole, every one of you.
For the last 4 years, I’ve wrestled with lots of people over these issues. The issue of what it means to be a patriot – and a progressive one – is something I haven’t yet succeeded in getting onto the table of broader discussion. I think I need to work harder at that.
I think the climate for that discussion is ripe. I think that in the coming year – between now and next Veteran’s Day – we will start to have those discussions in a more meaningful way.
Part of that is because we will have to confront what love of country looks like in it’s most raw form, as the veterans of the current – and I’m afraid future – war in the Middle East muster out and rejoin society. In it’s most basic form, patriotism is about the debt we owe.
When we talk about owing it to a country, or to a polity, it is an abstract debt. But we are going to start encountering people in our daily lives who will embody that debt – who have lived it, shed blood for it, bled for it themselves, and wept over those who died for it.
They are the walking, breathing manifestations of our obligation to America.
In my youth, when people showed contempt for veterans – what they were doing was attempting to repudiate the debt that they knew they owed to the country that had raised and succored them and that they didn’t want any more.
It wasn’t about the veteran who was challenged, screamed at, spat upon. It was meant as a kind of political bankruptcy – a washing away of the debt owed for a safe childhood, for being well-fed, for the pile of presents under the tree. Owed for freedom to choose what kind of life to lead, from the fear of the tyrant’s club, from barbed wire.
No one wants to owe for that. Many people see it as a birthright.
But everybody does owe for it. And birthrights bring obligations.
Grace Slick sang “I’d rather have my country die for me…”
Somehow I don’t think that’s the kind of time we’re in right now. Somehow I think we’re on the other side of the valley that we descended into when the Airplane sang that song, and climbing back out.
I think that veterans – in political office or in the cubicle next to yours – are going to be the catalyst for that climb. I think that the breadth of the embrace of veterans – while not as big as it should be – is also stretching our patriotism by making us look our obligations in the eyes and shake their hands. That’s easier and more widely accepted today than it was four years ago.
I don’t think this bigger war is nearly over. I desperately hope I’m wrong. I think there will be many more veterans in the coming years. Most likely, one or more of my sons will be among them.
I have a feeling all of us are going to have our debts to the country called, and we’ll have to sit down and write some (metaphorical) checks in the next decades.
But I’m confident that we will, and that we will have what it takes to see them cashed.
So today, if you know a veteran, look at them and realize that they are a marker – a marker of what we all owe. Thank them, honor them, buy them lunch or a beer. And do a gut check and see if you understand how much each of us truly owes America. I’ll bet you do.
So thanks, veterans. Thanks soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen. Thanks for doing your jobs and I hope you all come home hale and whole, every one of you.
Interestingly enough the Student Trustees at Orange Coast College (Community College) ran on a “revolutionary” banner and banned the Pledge of Allegiance on Campus.
Interestingly enough Hollywood’s new film with Christian Bale depicts Iraq War veterans as crazed killers who are degenerates.
I don’t think that will turn around any time soon; Dems hate the military and vets and that’s all there is. By definition they view the military as evil. Shrug. It’s who they are.
You�re welcome A.L.
I have watched and participated in the many issues this nation has faced from the ’60s to the present. The one thing that has always kept me going is I truly believe that no matter how bad things get this nation has the fortitude to right the ship and do what is required.
To all my fellow Marines – Semper Fi and Happy Birthday
Like you, I love this country. I still think of it as the Great Experiment, seeing whether a country drawing its legitimacy from The People can persist. We do owe a great debt to veterans, past and present, who have sacrificed for our country. I feel a personal responsibility for service, and a responsibility to defend our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Even while opposing the Vietnam war, I felt then that those who spat upon individual soldiers were despicable. I feel the same way now.
However, that doesn’t get our leaders off the hook, even a little. Those who put our men and women in harm’s way must meet a high standard. In my opinion (and that of many others), our current national leaders have failed to meet that standard. Not veterans themselves, most of them, they lusted for war and empire, and they failed to count the costs in a realistic way. The costs that they and their own children would never have to pay.
I can criticize and oppose these leaders and their policies, while respecting and honoring those who follow their orders.
And this leads me to a different view of what it means when people show contempt for veterans. It’s the same thing that leads right-wingers to say dumb things like “Liberals hate America.”
It’s very difficult to hate the sin and love the sinner. It’s difficult to oppose the leaders and support the troops. It’s much easier to divide the world into black and white, good and bad, enemies and allies. “You’re with us or you’re against us!”
So, back during the Vietnam war, there were a lot of people who felt strongly that the war was wrong. They didn’t have access to Johnson, Nixon, or Kissinger. They saw world as two camps, the good and the bad. So they expressed their opposition to a veteran, perhaps in a grotesque way. They didn’t recognize that the veteran was also a victim of the leaders. That was wrong. No question about it.
But it’s the same wrong if you’re angry at the TSA and you take it out on some poor, not-very-bright screener. Or you’re being served poorly on an airplane, and you take it out on the flight attendant who is working her butt off on an understaffed flight. Or anywhere else where a bad decision is made by a person far away, out of reach, leaving some poor schmuck to face the cannons. Go back and read “Charge of the Light Brigade.”
And it’s the same wrong when people say “Liberals hate America.” I love this country, and so do virtually all other liberals I know. I hate it when our leaders do unjust things in our country’s name. I hate it when people in power try to undermine the principle of checks and balances that keeps power under control. I hate it when people lie, rather than argue about differences in values and beliefs.
And I especially hate it when people tell me I don’t love my country, because I don’t fall in line with them.
I would just add that liberals keep in mind this is an enemy that delights in and is strengthened by the gratuitous and destructive attacks on the President and the Iraq policy by Democrats, and others. The vast majority of thesr criticisms have been unhelpful and unconstructive, adding nothing to strengthening America’s position.
As their statements today show, this enemy is emboldened and feels empowered by Tuesday’s results. Their appetite is whetted by that victory, and their answer to the Democratic victory is that America is even weaker now, ripe for the taking, and it’s within their grasp to “blow up the White House”
Moreover, they take great heart in the loss of heart Tuesday’s results caused among troops on the frontlines. They have rejoiced at Dem statements such as “victory is not a strategy” and “it’s a situation to be solved, not a war’.
The soldiers who have stood eyeball to eyeball with this enemy say they are now more vulnerable (Dadmanly.com) and are dispirited. It’s such a shame that Semper Fi isn’t a two way street. I fear that this trashing of the Iraq effort will only dwindle the warrior ranks who, when we or liberal Democrats turn to them for a Kosovo or a Darfur, will be nowhere to be found.
I don’t blame them for feeling undercut and let down by a wobbly American public and a President’s clumsy firing of their SecDef.
Stop sulking around man. Stop beating yourself up for being a Democrat! Liberals do love America. It is why we just won huge on the 7th.
One might notice, that those who have played hard, fast and loose with the truth, the public trust, and our Constitution, may not love it as much as they shout.
Citing some what some college kids did with the pledge of allegance is not going to change my mind about Jim Webb, or any of the other OUTSTANDING Patriotic Americans who won on liberal ideals on Nov 7th.
It is one thing to have a deep love for this nation, quite another to be a chest thumping arrogant fool who runs around chanting empty slogans while supporting trashing our Constitution and working people. Remember that.
PTC Wrote:
bq. _Citing some what some college kids did with the pledge of allegance is not going to change my mind about Jim Webb, or any of the other OUTSTANDING Patriotic Americans who won on liberal ideals on Nov 7th._
You’re right PTC. It wont change your or my mind about a particular candidate or issue. It does, however; give me pause as to what these kids will do when the reigns are turned over in time.
dos centavos-
You can find extremes on both sides, and attempt to label them as the party norm. The important thing, is what a party does, not it’s slogans and banner waving. Do you honestly believe that the Conservatives have lived up to their doctrine of smaller gov, less intrusive gov, fiscal discipline… conservative use of military force?
Go to the web site for Jesus camp and ask yourself… if you think this is a healthy group of people for Republicans to openly claim as their base? Democrats make no such claim about foolish college kids acting like buffoons. We never called a special session of congress (Teri Schaivo) to play to such an extreme, ever.
My point is, this kind of an attack on “liberalism” is a blatant monopolization of perception tactic used to distort democrats positions.
Who has divided this country, spent our tax dollars like drunken sailors, attacked science, promoted religious division, run the most corrupt Congress in the history of our republic, aliented our allies, reduced our moral standing in the world and mismanaged a war???THE REPUBLICANS.
dos centavos-
You can find extremes on both sides, and attempt to label them as the party norm. The important thing, is what a party does, not it’s slogans and banner waving. Do you honestly believe that the Conservatives have lived up to their doctrine of smaller gov, less intrusive gov, fiscal discipline… conservative use of military force?
Go to the web site for Jesus camp and ask yourself… if you think this is a healthy group of people for Republicans to openly claim as their base? Democrats make no such claim about foolish college kids acting like buffoons. We never called a special session of congress (Teri Schaivo) to play to such an extreme, ever.
My point is, this kind of an attack on “liberalism” is a blatant monopolization of perception tactic used to distort democrats positions.
Who has divided this country, spent our tax dollars like drunken sailors, attacked science, promoted religious division, run the most corrupt Congress in the history of our republic, aliented our allies, reduced our moral standing in the world and mismanaged a war???THE REPUBLICANS.
PTC,
Which side do Iran, Hugo Chavez, and Al-Qaeda root for?
Which side constantly tries to sabotage the War on Terror, from obstructing wiretapping of terrorists to trying to demoralize troops?
Which side tries to legitimize pedophelia, sympathize with murderers like Tookie Williams, and oppose Jessica’s Law?
Its the DUMBOCRATS, that’s who.
The first point alone tells all. WHY ARE HUGO CHAVEZ, IRAN, NK, and AL-QAEDA not only using the Dumbocrat talking point, but rooting for the Homocrats at the same time?
Answer the question.
AL:
Very moving post, so much so that I passed it on to a couple of friends of mine, both older, who served in Vietnam in the early 1960’s.
I think we are wiser than we were back at the height of Vietnam. I was only a teenager and I suspect you are not much older than I am, if at all. For the life of me, looking back, I don’t understand why so much of the anger of the anti-war movement was directed at the soldiers, most of whom were conscripted as a result of the draft. Even my veteran friends agree that today’s Iraq War vets face little of the hostility than they and their contemporaries faced back in, say, 1972.
Nevertheless, we do owe them a debt. As to other ways to pay back–other than buying someone lunch, that is, I have some suggestions. Write a check if you are able. Give money to the USO, or to Operation Helmet, or to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund. Or one of the many other organizations out there doing good work. It’s another great way to say “Thank you.”
“PTC Wrote #8”:http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/009205.php#c8
Extremes on both sides? Absolutely
I don’t need to go to the Jesus Camp / GreenPeace / PITA etc.. To figure these things out.
Who has divided this country? Now that is a question definitely worth exploring. Politicians on both sides of the aisle spewing their hate and vitrol pitting Americans against Americans. The media and their blatant misrepresentation on both sides of the issues. The American people who have fallen prey to the notion of foreigners having our best interests at heart.
One thing I know is certain. American soil will be attacked again and again if we let the issues divide us and fester. I was in NYC when the towers went down. Not a pretty sight. My daughter was across the street from the Pentagon when it got hit not a pretty sight.
The one thing Americans have lost is the stomach for war and understanding all of it’s implications – reverting to some moral high ground and believing that you can have a war of Queensbury rules.
Here’s the picture in a nut shell. The fact these incidents happened was bad enough. What one must understand is the intent was to kill ten’s of thousands of innocents period. The fact that it only totaled thousands is of little consequence concerning intent especially when the intent will remain regardless of appeasement.
I can certainly look back at history and go down the line from the Iranian Hostage situation to the present which places in clear focus the fanatical imbalance the Middle East is currently in.