In my weakness, I have been watching cable news. I do this whenever my life is going well and I just want to upset myself with the ridiculousness on TV. The debate on both MSNBC and Fox News was this: are John McCain and/or Barack Obama patriotic enough to be President?
Astonished at the boredom of these networks and the apparent lack of actual news, I watched for a while. After only a few minutes, I had heard enough. It became clear that for many Americans, the word "patriotism" has become skewed into something very different than the actual definition.
The definition is: "devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty."
I think that many people have developed a personal definition that is twisted by things that they hear.
I hate to pick on Bill O'Reilly, but he does have the best ratings-- of which he is frequent to remind us-- so he can handle it. He has stated several times that people who criticize America in any way are not patriotic. He believes that America is good enough already, and that anyone who does not support everything done by our country and the way that we do those things is, according to him, a "pinhead" and not a patriot.
I would like to dismantle that thinking. I believe that many people who follow Mr. O'Reilly's line of thinking are actually more nationalistic than patriotic. Nationalism is, in this way: "the doctrine that your national culture and interests are superior to any other."
The thought that the way we currently our is great, and therefore in no need of improvement is not only ignorant and wrong; it's dangerous. It was a "superior" race that, less than a lifetime ago, attempted to obliterate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. It was the thought that merely who they were, based on the color of their skin and the nation in which they were born made them in no uncertain terms superior.
Bill O'Reilly and many others have labeled all those who disapprove of any American tradition, or who think that there is anything wrong with America, or who think poorly of the President as America Haters, as I've written about before. According to them, whining, complaining, or criticizing elected representatives is not something that patriotic people do. We should support our President in everything we do because he is our boss.
In reality, the President works for us. We are the ones who are responsible for his paycheck. He is elected by us to do what we think is best for America.
The train of thought that says we have everything perfect right now is the same thought pattern that once said, "If God had intended for men to fly, they would have been born with wings." It is backward. It is outdated. It is ridiculous. If we do not change, we will not only not be the "best" country in the world, but we will fall behind where we are now. Our universities will fill with foreign students with better grades and our drivers will buy foreign cars that out perform our own.
And the notion that we must blindly follow our President like sheep (or in this current administration, lemmings) and support any ridiculous statement or policy is flat our wrong. It is unarguably wrong. Why have freedom if we give our mind and our will over to a fallible and imperfect President? Our President is not a prophet. His words are not inspired. He is imperfect. He makes mistakes.
If you think that an elected official is doing a bad job, and you are patriotic-- meaning that you have love or respect for your country-- and you don't speak out against that person, then you have failed as an American. Someone is either harming your country, its citizens, or making a bad name for it, and for you to say you still support that because it fulfills some thoughtless definition of patriotism is thought process more than fitting for the definition of stupid.
If you are patriotic, you should want what's best for your country. I hope that's not too extreme of a statement.
Happy Independence Day.
