Feeling Patriotic for the 1st time

by lisaBObeesa 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  lisaBObeesa

  All of the sudden, I feel patriotic. For the first time in my life.

  And it isn’t ‘fake’ patriotisim, like some people have said. They say because I didn’t fly the flag before Sept 11, and I do now, that somehow it isn’t real. No. What I feel now is real. I just didn’t feel it on Sept 10.

  I feel very American all of the sudden. My home has been attacked. My home. My country. I was proud of the President who I didn’t vote for when he gave his speech. I suddenly feel bad about all the pissing and moaning I have done over the years about American politics, American education, and American anything. Now I just wish everything was like it was ‘Before.’

  I am amazed. I have never felt this way. These are new feelings for me. These feelings are coming from my heart, and then I see them reflected on the TV and in others on the street, not the other way around.. This makes me feel even MORE a part of America. This is the first time I heard a Presidential speech that I agreed with! The first time. This is also the first time I didn’t think the President, any President, looked fake.

  And strangely I am feeling ashamed of America’s ‘stuff’ all of the sudden, too. All of the sunglasses and fancy cars and Jennifer Aniston haircuts. I don’t even know what these feelings have to do with any of what has happened, but I know they do.

  So all of the sudden I have an American flag. And all of the sudden I am behind a President. And all of the sudden I don’t take America for granted anymore. All of the sudden, I am patriotic.

  I think I will always question the system, the politicians, the laws, the unfairness. But now, underneath it all, is a love of country that I don’t think will ever go away.

  Thanks for listening.

  --LisaBObeesa
• 

  DannyBear

  Lisa,

  Thanks Iam feeling the exact sentiments. You put the words in very simple, yet eloquent order.

  Me to!

  Danny
• 

  TR

  Good for you, Lisa!

  For those who don't appreciate patriotism:

  It is with the blood of patriots that buys our freedom. Freedom to burn the U.S. flag, not participate in politics, bitch about military spending, bitch about going to war to again protect our freedom, practice your own particular pacifist religion, freedom to mock the government that tries to protect your sorry asses from not having to participate in fighting for freedom, piss and moan about not drilling for our own oil in Alaska so that we have to depend on the Arabs, thus keeping a military presence there to protect our investment, freedom to etc., etc., etc.,.........

  TR

  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
  —Edmund Burke
• 

  GentlyFeral

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=12318&site=3

  It is the blood of patriots that buys our freedom. Freedom to burn the U.S. flag, not participate in politics, bitch about military spending, bitch about going to war to again protect our freedom, practice your own particular pacifist religion, freedom to mock the government that tries to protect your sorry asses

  There's more than one way to be a patriot.

  Who protected our sorry asses from the House Un-American Activities Committee headed by the nefarious Joseph McCarthy? Leftists. Activists. Pacifists, even.

  Who enforced Executive Order 1066 that interned patriotic Japanese-Americans at Manzanar? Soldiers.

  Who protected the Little Rock Nine from racist bigots on the first day of school, 1957? The National Guard ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/civilrights/features_school.html).

  Who said this? "Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.

  Freedom happens when patriots are willing to risk "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." Patriots are often villified in the midst of their work; Martin Luther King, Jr., for instance, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They risked their honor -- their reputation and their right to recognition -- gladly, to do what they knew to be right. They love their country the way I do, the way I love my sister: willing to give anything necessary, in the full knowledge that sometimes she's just plain damn wrong.

  I haven't expressed this as clearly as I wanted to. Soldiers obey and enforce orders. They can't pick and choose which orders to obey, which is the main reason I don't want to see my children in the armed forces: you have to check your conscience at the door. A soldier can be a servant of justice or an acessory to a crime; it all depends on what orders are given.

  Soldiers have defended our country mostly against other soldiers. Against environmental destruction, hypocrisy, racism, increasing poverty, homelessness, and the national tendency to demonize our teenage children -- what can they do?

  Gently Feral
• 

  lisaBObeesa

  GentlyFeral,

  Beautifully said.

  --LisaBObeesa
• 

  SixofNine

  Gentle wild thing, I think I love you
  but I want to know for sure
  wild thing, I think I love you
  come on and post some more

  I love you
• 

  Seeker

  I'll be the contrarian again. I'm not patriotic, and never will be. I have always agreed with Einstein's thought that nationalism is the measles of the human race. It divides humanity. Am I an American? Sure, by accident of birth. But I am foremost a human, and I view all humans as my brothers regardless of nation.

  Do I want to see these terrorists killed? Yes, I want those particular brothers killed, for they are dangerous to society. Do I support my president (yes, he's my president, again because of my citizenship)? Yes, I do.

  But patriotic? Uh, no. I hate death and destruction against any member of the human race, not just Americans. Is what happened last week as unprecedented as American newscasters have breathlessly told us? Nope, just for Americans, and only in scope. This isn't even the first time the WTC has been attacked by terrorists with loss of life as a result. Only the scope made it particularly horrific. People in other parts of the globe have been living with this awful plague of terrorism for many years. We finally see what they are going through. No, let me correct that -- we finally feel what they are going through.

  I am encouraged every time I see the unity the world is showing. I am discouraged every time I hear someone say we should nuke a country for revenge. But no, I'm not patriotic, for I am a human above all, and I grieve for the people of 80 nations that lost their life last week at the WTC, not just the Americans. And I grieve for anything that divides humanity, and that includes nationalism.

  Go ahead, attack me now since I don't walk in lockstep. Because I resist the propaganda that has been washing over us. But that's how I felt before this attack, and I feel the same now. No point in being an independent thinker if you can't stick by your principles.
• 

  Amazing

  Hi Lisa: Back in the 1960s it was just the opposite. It was popular to be against the USA. Yankee Go Home! was the call of the day in foreign lands. Various countries seized our oil rigs off shore. Korea seized the USS Pueblo in International waters (act of war) but Nixon just talked, talked, and talked, Viet Nam was most unpopular, and it was easy to become a JW - no flag saluting, etc.

  One would never know that we were the same nation that came out of WWII - proud, mighty, and united by patriotism. I recall those patriotic days, but never thought I would see them again. The Persian Gulf War brought about some patriotism again. And I was just getting ready to leave the JWs.

  Now, though, the patriotism today is like it was in the 1950s, only better. The nations supporting us the way they are is awesome. This is someting new too, and it is good to see people pulling together.

  Thanks again for your post. - Amazing
• 

  safe4kids

  ((((seeker)))),

  I agree in large part to what you posted...I like to think of myself as a citizen of the world and all humans as my fellow citizens. One area tho that I can relate to in what Lisa said is that since Sept 11, I have felt a love for my country that I don't recall being aware of before. It isn't that I think Americans are somehow better than others or that I am blind to the wrongs we have committed...it's more a sense of community that I didn't feel before. Does that make me patriotic? Well, I will confess to learning the words to the Star Spangled banner in the last week!

  As far as knocking you for your expressions seeker...I often gain perspective from your posts, especially when you take a differing view than most. Thanks dude...and I hope that all is going well with you.

  Dana
• 

  Seeker

  Dana,

  Thanks, my friend. I also feel a sense of community, but that could just be because it was MY city that was attacked! New Yorkers have come together in a way I have never seen. I like anything that brings people together, and find this a positive.