To Be a Patriot

To be a patriot is to love and be devoted to one’s country.  There are special days in the year when the show of one’s patriotic spirit is encouraged—the 4th of July being one, not to mention Flag Day, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, or Patriot’s Day (the third Monday of April in the States of Main and Massachusetts). 

But what is a true patriot?  We’ve all heard the saying, perhaps said it ourselves: “My country, love it or leave it!”  Or, “Right or wrong, I stand behind her!”  What can be more patriotic than that? Well, I suppose nothing…, unless.

Unless what?  Unless one’s patriotism rejects blind patriotism and expects integrity and accountability of its country, and is willing to make the necessary sacrifices to keep one’s country true to its values and principles.

Ever notice how right and wrong or good and bad can sometimes be turned upside down and twisted around in the name of patriotism?  For example, a whistle blower exposing government lies or abuses of power and authority, governmental overreach, becomes the guilty party and is accused of being unpatriotic, rather than the government officials that were doing the wrong in the first place.

Do you remember how, when anyone that questioned or outright opposed George W. Bush’s choice to preemptively attack Iraq, back in 2003, they were told to sit-down and shut-up and were coldly accused of being blatantly unpatriotic—with, “if you are not with us you are against us” language?

It took a lot of guts and great strength of character with supreme clarity of vision and insight, to stand-up to all the other so-called true patriots that were clamoring for taking the war into Iraq.  Yet, with all our regrets now, about the war in Iraq and its results, what are those so-called true patriots now saying about what it means to be patriotic?

Love for one’s country is good and even necessary, so long as it is not blind or manipulated.  In other words, we are to love our country with our eyes wide open.  In the 1930’s and 40’s, blindly manipulated love for one’s country put Hitler and his Nazi regime into power—something the Germans have regretted ever since.  Do we Americans think ourselves superior enough to be above the reach of political manipulation in the name of patriotism?  If so, we really are in trouble?

So what is the antidote, to guard against blind patriotism or being politically manipulated in the name of patriotism?  I offer the following.

Like individual people, we should hold individual nations, including our own, accountable to the higher authority of justice, goodness, and righteousness.

For one, “Might does not make right.”  The rightness of an action must stand on its own merits.  So, for example, the rightness of a nation’s actions or intended action must be measured by the high standard of moral and ethical principles of justice and righteousness over against shear political backing and will-power and/or official claims to have the power and authority to take such action.

Patriots are to be true to their country.  But there country is also to be true to its people as well.  What does it mean for a nation to be true to its people?  It means that its public officials are to operate with integrity, submitting to the very same laws they claim to uphold by virtue of their office.  It means that government officials, from the highest office to the lowest, are to work with transparency wherever, however, and whenever possible, given the nature of their office.  They are to be and are to remain truly accountable to the public he/she represents.

Thus, when one group begins to accuse another group, or a few individual nay-sayers within its own group, as being un-patriotic, I become wary of the accusers rather than of the accused.  I begin to question the nature of the accusers’ agenda and wonder what they may be hiding, as they slip behind the flag of patriotism so as to avoid authentic scrutiny.  The agenda of a real patriot is always open and transparent, non-manipulative and seeks what is right, good, and just for the nation and its people as a whole.