American Pride: What Constitutes Patriotism?

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. "George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

I was watching Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher the other night. They were talking about the war on terrorism and whether or not we, the United Sates of America, should be apologetic to the rest of the world for any of our actions or policies that we might need to be ashamed of. Then Ann Coulter, a guest on the show, pronounced that she was proud to be an American and didn't feel we need to apologize to anyone. She said, "Am I the only one here that is proud to be an American?"

Well, that infuriated me and I felt insulted because it implied that the rest of us, "liberal, secular, progressive types" were somehow less proud and less patriotic because we didn't think like she did. And her implication raised the question: what exactly is it that makes one proud to be an American? And it strikes me that my list of things that make me proud might not coincide with her list, but nevertheless are just as valid and imbued with patriotism.

For example, being a musician, my list includes Jazz, The Blues, and Rock n Roll. All these things are uniquely American. And, being an artist and a writer, I am proud for all the great art and literature that this country has produced: For Henry David Thorough for inspiring Gandhi to implement civil disobedience. For all the great American writers and poets past and present, for Edgar Allen Poe, for Mark Twain the quintessential American writer of all time. No other country could have produced him. For Bob Dylan, the troubadour and unwitting prophet who became a voice of a generation. For the Grateful Dead, a truly organic band of musicians who embodied all the music of the world and represented the most diverse freedom of expression that only a country like America could have produced. I'm proud for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, for pushing the envelope. I'm proud for all the subsequent and current crop of rockers too, who are carrying the torch and who "keep on rockin' in the free world." For the beat poets, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg, and the rest, for Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassidy, for the flower children of Haight Asbury for having their utopian vision which was in the grand tradition of American experimentalism. Yes, the hippies make me beam with American pride; only in this great country could a movement so naïve, narcissistic and imbued with idealism been allowed to blossom. I'm proud of the courage they showed to stand up to the drab, colorless established order and the military industrial complex and declare, "Make love, not war." I'm proud for Woodstock which could have only happened in America, the spontaneous display of classical anarchy begging to show a better way to the world, the innocent vision that we could all live together in peace and harmony. I'm proud for Martin Luther King Jr. for being the inspiration that he was for peace, equality and justice, for having his beautiful dream. For Broadway musicals, for New Orleans and Mardi Gras, for the rich heritage of all our diverse ancestry, for the attempt to be the world's melting pot and living up to the credo of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door" a credo that Christ himself would bless. I am proud for the uniquely American cosmic document, the constitution, which, borrowing from many philosophies and the ancient Greek predecessors who tried first to define a government by, for, and of the people, boldly advanced in an unprecedented way in the history of the planet, a plan to finally lay rest to tyranny and a framework for liberty and justice for all. I am proud that our declaration of independence stated an inalienable right of every individual to the pursuit of happiness. I am proud that I live in a country where the government can't tell me what God to believe in and I am free to practice or not practice any religion I want to. And yes, I'm proud of American ingenuity, industriousness, all the inventions and scientific exploration that are a hallmark of the unique American frontier spirit. I'm proud of the spirit of rugged individualism in this country, the tradition of small businesses and small farms, people believing in the American dream. I'm proud of the Peace Corps and at least the intent behind the safety net of the welfare system and social security and the public education system and all the efforts to actually help people stay on their own feet and improve their lives, despite all the obvious flaws in the system. And yes I'm proud of the courage of young people to fight and die for their country. And the list goes on and on, I have left out so much. I am proud of the phrase, "only in America" and for all the myriad mythological manifestations of that phrase, the symbolic hope of the world. And this is just my list. I am sure most Americans could add their own favorite reasons for pride to this list.

The point is I love my country equally as much as Ann Coulter and others of her ilk, maybe even more, but it seems for different reasons. I would be curious to see her list of reasons. Is she proud just because we got the biggest, baddest military on the planet and we can really kick ass? Or is it just blind patriotism like they preferred in Nazi Germany? My country, right or wrong? Would she be insulted at the implication that we even need reasons to be patriotic?

I know what doesn't make me patriotic: The fact that I was forced to stand up and pledge my allegiance to the flag when I was a child in school seems to me a very un-American tradition. Forced patriotism is kind of counterintuitive don't you think? Don't you think pride and patriotism would be better served if it was organic and natural and genuine, welling up from the grass roots of our society? I'm not proud of the Patriot Act, a misnomer if there ever was one, and a perversion of the aforementioned values of freedom and individual liberty. Is it necessary to combat terrorism? That is debatable. But as Benjamin Franklin said:"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Unfortunately, we could make a long list of all the things that make us ashamed of our country: The massacre at wounded knee, the genocide imposed on the native people of this continent; Slavery, the horrible legacy of brutality and racism, hangings and lynchings; The fact that despite our founding father's shout about equality for all and equal representation, blacks and women did not even have the right to vote until 1870 and 1920 respectively. Remember that, Ann Coulter, one hundred years ago your vote would not have counted. There was no universal suffrage. And those things did not change until the people rose up, criticized and demanded change! Were those people unpatriotic, un-American, Ann Coulter? Is anyone proud of the internment camps for Japanese in WWII? Shall I go on? Or would it be un-American to criticize too much? Well, as an American I am ashamed of the Ku Klux Klan. Nevertheless, I am proud that we live in a country where organizations like the ACLU, the one the right loves to vilify all the time, will defend their right to assembly and expression, and to make fools of themselves. Hey, democracy is messy and far from perfect. And just because there are numerous reasons for being ashamed does not mean that I can't be a proud American for other reasons. Just as a real man, who is far from perfect, will have the fortitude to admit his mistakes and learn from them, just as a humble soul will accept a defeat and move on and grow from it, just as a real man will rise above the ignorance of his opponent and not lower himself to that level, making him the better man, so should a nation such as The United States of America which carries the mantle responsibility of the only remaining world's super power perhaps exercise a little restraint and self examination before lashing out like a child with a temper tantrum. And for God's sake, I'm not saying we shouldn't defend ourselves.

I am proud of this country for its ideals and the things we are supposed to stand for. Today the corruption of those ideals is rampant. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are questionable to say the least, despite the rationale that we are fighting terrorism "over there" so they don't kill us here, (and does any rationally thinking American actually believe that Islamic fascism could ever transform our nation into part of their caliphate? Give me a break, we'd be throwing snow balls in Hades before that could ever happen) and we have a duty, not just a right, to question these wars. When thousands of lives and billions of dollars are at stake it is un-American to NOT question our leaders and take them to task. I am not proud of the obscenely unequal distribution of wealth, which capitalism run amuck is want to create; the disproportionate greed of CEOs while blue collar workers toil, the overpaid sports figures and Hollywood stars indulging in excess. At the same time, I applaud Bill Gates for being the humanitarian and philanthropist that he is. It is a good example of how an alternative capitalism can work. But I am not proud of the way large corporations disregard the little people, transporting jobs beyond our borders for cheap labor. I am weary of the consolidation of media control. Though I am proud of avant-garde movements like the hippies, which became an invention of the media via Time and Life Magazine, I am almost embarrassed about how our capitalistic society, where advertising is the lubrication that keeps it running, tends to swallow up and water down anything that is truly unique to spit it back out, make it more palatable to the masses and sell it to them. I am ashamed of the complacency of the American people who buy it, a populace which has grown lazy and fat with the entitlement mentality which leads us to believe we can consume disproportionate amounts of the world's resources with impunity and no consequence. I hate that some of our pop culture heroes and heroines have become vacuous symbols based on empty myths and superficial façade. Ironically, some of the same things that "they" hate about us are the same things I hate about us. And guess what, it isn't because of our "freedom." And note this please: saying there are things I hate about this country is not the same thing as saying I hate America!!!

I am aware that these are merely my own perspectives and that there is a segment of this society that feels the other way around; hippies and artists who create "piss Christ" and rockers and rebels who rabble rouse, and punker goth kids who dye their hair purple and wear nose rings are an embarrassment to them. That is fine. Just don't call them un-American. There is room for all of us and we can all be proud.

And of course there are also good things going on and good people working hard, trying to facilitate progress towards that shining city on a hill. Civilization is perhaps advancing with growing pains. So my point here is not to elaborate on the criticisms but to point out the patriotism involved in criticizing. Our forefathers made it clear that, "when in the course of human events it becomes necessary..." it is the patriotic duty of every citizen to remain vigilant and keep a close eye on and to question our Government. Thomas Jefferson said this: "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere." I am a proud American who is ashamed of my Government and afraid that the ideals I love are being stolen from us. Ann Coulter, don't you dare call me unpatriotic because I wonder about the legitimacy of my Government's intentions.

Back in the sixties, during the Vietnam War, there were many dissidents criticizing our government, in fact, yes there was a whole movement, an entire counterculture involved in revolution against our government because we believed our government was wrong. In my view, WE were the patriotic citizens doing our duty, carrying on the tradition of revolution that our country was born into. I thought our founding fathers would have been proud of us for exercising our rights of demonstration to keep our leaders in line. Abraham Lincoln said, "We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution."

But there were those among us, the flag waivers on the right, the hawks who believed everything our leaders told them; that we were fighting for our freedom in Vietnam, that if we did not stop them there, Communism would spread like dominoes and soon they would be on our borders, in Mexico and Canada, and their evil socialist agendas would seep across like a disease and before you knew it we would all be eating potatoes and slaving in state run factories. And their credo against us, the demonstrators, became, "love it or leave it." And this infuriated me as it still does today because as a proud American I always thought that phrase could be turned right around: If you want to live in a country where no one has the right to demonstrate and speak their mind then it is YOU who should leave and go live in the Soviet Union or China.

When 9-11 happened I saw the country divide into two modes of thinking: One group, it seemed, thought of nothing but revenge. Others had the apparent audacity to wonder and ask why? Most Americans were OK with going to Afghanistan and seeking out the perpetrators. But it is not unreasonable, and certainly not unpatriotic to ask why they hate us, how could they hate us that much, to do something like this? In fact it is prudent, when so many lives are at stake and have already been lost, to ask as many questions as possible. And it would not hurt our collective pride all that much to display a little humbleness instead of hubris, act like an adult would act, not like a spoiled child, and examine our behavior on the international arena to see where we might have gone wrong, to see if there is anything we did in the past to prompt this terrorism.

And again, that is not the same thing as saying anything legitimizes or justifies what the terrorists did. It was horrible, reprehensible, barbaric, inexcusable, and unfathomable. Words can't even express. But even one of the republican candidates for president in 2007, Ron Paul has said that if it were not for years of interventionist, preemptive foreign policy, we might have avoided such an attack on our soil. That doesn't mean he is right. But it doesn't mean he is not a proud American either, just because he is examining the possibility.

And by the way, if we ever find Osama bin Laden, hang him too.