True Patriotism

Something my wife Janet said to me recently struck a chord and has been ruminating in my brain for a few days, so I thought I'd write about it.

I don't remember the specific conversation or comment well enough to quote it, I only mention the source to give proper credit for some of the ideas.

The context is the recurring theme from our President that it is worth giving up a few of our freedoms and values to increase his power to keep us safe from terrorists. Of course, he never phrases it in quie that way, but it's rather hard to characterize torture, extraordinary rendition, increased Presidential power, petulant refusal to accept any Congressional oversight, and indeed the entire Iraq war (and, if signs are to be believed, the coming Iran war) in any other way.

But here's the thing: The uber-patriots among us like to talk about laying down our lives for our country. We're taught to revere our brave soldiers who are willing to die for this country (and rightly so), and we convince ourselves that we would do the same if the need became great, or we demonize our enemies by implying that they wouldn't.

So here's the question: If our freedoms and our values and our nation are worth dying for, then why is it only worth deaths on the battlefield? Why is it only worth our SOLDIERS dying for it? If our country's values are worth dying to protect then the possibility of further terrorist attack is just one of the ways we may die to keep our country great. And if we do not consider our country's values worth dying for, if we do not feel it is worth the risk of dying in a terrorist attack if that is the cost of preserving our rights and freedoms so hard won and carefully laid out over 230 years ago, then how is it worth sending our soldiers to die for the same cause?

As our President and his cadre are so fond of reminding us, this is a different kind of war. We're not talking about an enemy we can ever entirely defeat (like we could a dictator or a country). This isn't an enemy like any we've ever faced before, because we're fighting an ideology, not a specific people or group or country.

And so we really have two choices: We can decide that our values are worth dying for, worth risking death for, then hold our heads high as we continue our lives knowing we never sacrificed our principles, or we can decide to erode our principles one by one in the name of protecting ourselves, until there's really nothing left to protect but the memory of past glory, until we're a nation of Paris Hiltons, spoiled little brats born on third base and convinced we hit a triple, even though we've no idea how to even hold a baseball bat.

I don't want to die in a terrorist attack. I don't want my family members to, or my friends, or almost any American (although I may make an exception for the next person who tries to dismiss a dissenting opinion by asserting that the opponent “hates America”). But for better or for worse I've got the patriotism bug, I've grown up believing this country is great and that the reason it is great is the values it has. And I think it'd be far more in keeping with the spirit of true patriotism to die in a fiery conflagration with my children and my friends, knowing that those who survived would continue to be free and maintain their basic human rights, than to send our children off to commit atrocities in our names and slowly erode away our freedoms in the name of preserving something that we far more effectively kill ourselves than any terrorist enemy ever could.

Take a stand. If you think this country is worth dying for, be willing to die for it (or at least risk dying for it), here at home, in order to keep it great. If you're not willing to take that risk, there's simply not enough left here to be worth fighting for. We've already lost.

Liam.