Speedkill

Patriotism
Patriotism is all the rage nowadays. People waving flags, holding
signs, flags on porches, etc. The most potent weapon supporters of Bush
have is questioning someone’s patriotism. The mere mention causes
people to vehemently defend themselves. If a righty doesn’t like
something, he merely calls you unpatriotic and you have to defend
yourself, changing the subject. Just as the anti-war movement was hip
for many young people, patriotism is hip for older people. But as is
obvious to many, it’s leading us down a bad road. An unquestioning,
morally blind road with regards to the state of the world.
What drives this? Fear. And guilt. Fear that something awful will
happen if we don’t fight everyone and the guilt that soldiers are dying
for them and they have to support it. Fear that the anti-war movement
is representing them and they feel guilty and scared about. That’s one
thing that irritates me. There would be no troops rallies or anything
if there were no anti-war protestors. They don’t care enough to go out
on there own initiative, they are coerced into it by guilt. There’s
nothing wrong with being patriotic (here I go defending myself). But
like many things, in excess, it’s very harmful. You can see the
incredible difference in opinions between the U.S. and the world and
attribute it to detachment. We have no problem accepting bad things
about France, but when it’s your own country, it’s not tolerable. And
one more thing: why is patriotism linked to God? One nation under God,
God bless America. I realize these are old sayings, but they seem to be
out in force these days. I really don’t have much to say about this,
other than it’s wrong.
You can say this was an appropriate or an inappropriate rant with
Memorial Day being, well, yesterday, now. But I needed to get it off my
chest.