Remembering what it means to be an American (Doug Thompson)
Remembering what it means to be an American (Doug Thompson)
I'm an American: bred, born and raised in the home of the brave and land of the free. I'm also a patriot, having served my country more than once and in different ways.
But I've never thought that being an American and a patriot means I have to support my country when I think it is wrong. A basic freedom granted to all Americans gives each of us not only the the right to speak out against our government, but makes it our duty to do so when we believe such dissent is necessary.
Lately, however, too many people seem to have forgotten that freedom of speech and expression is a primary American right.
Recently, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets of cities in this country to protest the upcoming war in Iraq - the largest antiwar protests since Vietnam.
This upset the "America right or wrong" crowd who said anybody who opposes anything that comes out of Washington in these post-9/11 times must be a traitor.
There's no doubt a wave of renewed American pride swept over this country in the days, weeks and months following 9/11. You saw it on TV, heard it in songs and expressed it by flying American flags on car antennas and in front yards.
Unfortunately, the increase in American pride also brought a rise in intolerance for differing point of view, for people whose skin color and accents suggested a Middle Eastern ancestry and for those brave enough to stand up against the tide and ask: Are we doing the right thing?
Suddenly, anyone who spoke out became a "traitor" to America, someone who aided and abetted the enemy. To oppose war, to speak out against the government's policies, we were told, was anti-American.
I hate to break the news to these Johnny-come-lately patriots, but America doesn't work that way.
Those brave souls who gathered in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence spoke out against their government and established the principle that dissent was a basic right and freedom which should be "self-evident."
The issue is not whether or not we agree with those who march and call our leaders murderers for leading this country into war. This is America. We don't have to agree with them. And they don't have to agree with us.
Some of those who marched against the war a couple of weeks ago fought in Vietnam or Desert Storm. Some won enough medals to fill a trophy case. They didn't suddenly become sissies or cowards. They remained what they have always been: Americans.
It doesn't take a lot of guts to stick a flag decal on your 4-wheel drive. It does take guts to stand up and question the actions of your government in these emotionally charged times. It takes guts to buck the crowd and say "hey, maybe things are getting out of hand when we give up our rights to privacy, our rights of probable cause and our protections against unreasonable search and seizure in the name of a war against terrorism."
There are some real questions which need to be asked and a growing number of people are taking the risk to ask them.
Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, a hard-core, right-wing conservative, has signed on with the American Civil Liberties Union to help fight what he sees as unreasonable assaults on American freedoms under the increased police state powers granted to the Department of Homeland Security under the USA Patriot Act and other such legislation. So has former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, another right-wing Republican.
Others joining the ACLU in its efforts to block this wholesale assault on privacy and freedom include longtime Republican conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.
A few years ago, none of these three would have had anything to do with the ACLU. In the 1988 Presidential election, George H.W. Bush, the current President's father, called opponent Michael Dukakis a "card carrying member of the ACLU" as a badge of dangerous liberalism. Now the former President stands down from public comment on his son's plans for war with Iraq or the increasing police powers in the country. Close aides say he doesn't support the actions. Other members of the elder Bush's cabinet have gone public with their questions about the country's headlong rush to war.
So why are right-wingers joining with the lefties? I think it has something to do with loving your country and putting that love above party politics and blind loyalty to any elected leader.
"Yes, I'm a Republican, but I'm an American first," Barr told a reporter when asked why he had joined the enemy.
"Some things are more important than politics," Armey said. "My loyalty to my country comes before any loyalty to a President or a party."
America is a diverse country with more than 200 million Americans who come from varied backgrounds, different philosophies and opposing beliefs. The last Presidential election showed a country split right down the middle, a contest so close it took the Supreme Court to decide the outcome.
Last year's mid-term elections, cited by Republicans as a mandate for their policies, were much closer than the final results suggest. The key races that decided the balance of power in both the House and Senate could have gone either way with a swing of just one or two percentage points.
America's greatness is not determined by Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is determined by all Americans of all political persuasions, all beliefs and all feelings.
Patriotism doesn't wave a party flag.
Just an American one.
(SOURCE: "Remembering what it means to be an American", Capitol Hill Blue)
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