“This is America. Love it or Leave it!” Ever hear that before?
When these words are spoken, it is supposedly a way of honoring America, a way of saying, “America is the best, give her 100% of your support.” In actuality, these words are often used to shut down all contrary opinions or to close out negative critique respecting hotly contested issues in American politics. That is to say, “If you disagree with us or have a problem with this, your love for America is questionable and we doubt that you’re a true patriot, so leave—we don’t want the likes of you.”
Take the political atmosphere back in 2002-03 when it was “being decided” whether or not we should do a preemptive strike against Saddam Hussein and extend the Afghan war into Iraq. Does anyone remember how the minority side was treated; the side who thought that doing a preemptive strike against Iraq was not only a bad idea but a fundamentally wrong idea? Do you remember how the “nay-sayers” were depicted by the pro-strike side and its fellow hawks? They were called un-American and unpatriotic. They were portrayed as traitors, betraying the American cause and undermining America’s safety and security. They were mocked as weak minded and empty-headed, as putting their head in the sand. They were essentially invited to leave America—yes, as in “This is America, love it or leave it!” Does anyone remember this?
Though this minority voice was ridiculed and laughed at and made to feel small, a few bold ones continued to speak out and tried to be heard. They said things like, “It is because I love America that I criticize her and speak out when I believe that she is doing wrong,” or like, “My patriotism demands that I stand up against this horrible mistake that I believe America is making.” They not only had to defend their contrary point of view but their very patriotism, just because they held a contrary opinion on the matter.
It’s too easy to fall into “all or nothing” sides: The one side says, “America is the best country in the world. She deserves a hundred and ten percent of our support. We back her no matter what.” The other side says, “America is bad, has done terrible things and she must pay the penalty for it; let her fall, bring her down, she deserves it.” Where’s the honesty, the integrity, or the wisdom in either of these two simplistic polarized sentiments?
We are a mixed bag. All nations are. As a nation we’ve done pretty well over the years. But we’ve also made some pretty big mistakes. We’ve done wrong. And the more readily we are able to admit this, the more capable we are to correct and improve things, and steer ourselves in the right direction.
Patriotic sentiment is not a weapon. That is to say that naysayers and malcontents have a right to critique, rebuff, and question America’s policies and its decisions and actions (national or international) without being accused of being unpatriotic or un-American. Furthermore, a strong people will have the strength to own up to its mistakes and blunders and to take corrective action and make necessary adjustments to make things right.
Remember back in W.W. II how we put our own Japanese-American citizens in concentration camps? It wasn’t until 1988 that the U.S. Government formally apologized for that 1942 decision and finally provided some compensation to those who were interned. This would be an example. The Vietnam War is another. Decades passed before Robert McNamara, one of its most powerful promoters & defenders, was finally willing to admit that the Vietnam War was a mistake, to acknowledge that he and his administrative associates were wrong. Said McNamara in an MSNBC interview, “I think my associates and I acted in accordance with what we thought were the traditions, principles and values of this nation, but we were wrong. And therefore I think that we owe it to future generations to explain why, to try to draw the lessons so we won’t make the same mistakes again. There were two, three, I should say, basic misconceptions. The first was I think we misjudged the Soviet threat, the communist threat. And this is very important. I hope we’ll have time to refer back to that. The second was we viewed it as a war of aggression, Communist against South Vietnam. It was a civil war. We didn’t understand that. Thirdly, we used military tactics and strategy that were more appropriate to opposing the Soviet threat in Western Europe than the Gorillas in Southeast Asia.” [See msnbc.com, YouTube.] McNamara emphasizes that we should learn from our mistakes in the past. Indeed we should. But have we? Do we? Will we?
America will only be as strong as its integrity, its willingness to do what is right. We may not always get it right, but we can at least be willing to be corrected and learn to admit our mistakes. The War in Iraq would be another example, in my opinion. To this day, the previous president, the one who decided to declare war on Iraq with its infamous preemptive strike, refuses to admit error, has no doubt nor second thoughts on this decision, and so adamantly offers no apology and no regret. Yet, years later, we continue to count the deaths on both sides. We still are unable to count its full cost and cannot yet fully measure our ongoing losses in human lives, resources, and money, which mount daily. This is sad and regretful.
p.s.
It’s that “All or Nothing!” position that we must be wary of, that we should wonder at and always question. Now we are seeing it in the area of government finances respecting our National Debt. No movement as to taxes—even if it should minimally affect a very small and very well to do minority set of Americans. No willingness to shore-up tax loop-holes, no acceptance of rescinding the Bush tax cuts or any other tax privileges anywhere, in any way or in any form. All or nothing! What is the integrity or the wisdom in that? Are they doing America a favor with such staunchly immovable and intractable attitudes regarding taxes? Is their position somehow sacrosanct, holier, and purer than the other side? They certainly act that way. What a pity.
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