Knot My Line

Recently I encountered an interesting blog post titled Patriotism, Conservative and Liberal. The post was accompanied by a host of comments, many of them also interesting, some not.  All of this has prompted me to try and understand my own feelings of patriotism and to write about them.

First, a bit of personal history.  I spent the first 8-9 years of my life in Chicago and then I grew up in Wabeno Wisconsin, a small town about 100 miles north of Green Bay.  There I was largely sheltered from the second world war and received a very general and probably typical small town education. Years later I liked to quip that in Wabeno they taught a little of the 3 R’s and a lot of the 3 F’s (farming, farming and forestry).  That is hardly true, but does reflect the isolation of a small town. Everyone knew everyone else and their business. Kids acting up were quickly disciplined by the nearest adult. If they were inclined to do that with a slap or a boot in the rear, no one thought to complain.  People cared about other people and that was all that mattered.  I and my peers were indeed raised by a village.

I left home after high school and moved to Chicago.  It was only a short time before I was married, had three kids, got divorced and raised my son and two daughters myself. Work and the family had largely kept my mind away from the Korean war and the onset of the Vietnam war.  But I was now in my mid twenties and much more aware of world events.  After six years of single life I had remarried and had inherited two more young daughters. I had always been a voracious reader and had become much more aware of the world, social issues, well as the issues surrounding the Vietnam war. I also was a follower of Dr. King and I and the family had marched with him in Chicago. I became quite active in the civil rights movement.

My job had enabled me to become a data processing consultant and I traveled the country teaching and advising clients.  Eventually, my travels brought me to Washington D.C. where I took the time to visit every museum on the mall as well as the capital building.  On a hot, humid Sunday in early July I drove up to Arlington National Cemetery. I had expected huge crowds but for some reason, maybe the weather, I was almost alone at Arlington that day.

For a long time I just wandered around reading grave markers and enjoying the solitude of the day. I visited the Custis-Lee Mansion which has an interesting history of its own.  Eventually I found myself at the President Kennedy Memorial where sat nearby and mourned brooded contemplated for nearly an hour. Then I wandered to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then in a short time witnessed the impressive and emotional Changing of the Guard. After that I walked to my car and drove out of the Cemetery. As I passed the exit gate, I said aloud in a somewhat surprised voice; “I didn’t know I was patriotic”.

In the years following that experience I have also learned that my loyalty and patriotism has many variations. I have allegiance to the companies where I have worked but these are easily superseded by those I have for the various cities and states where I have lived. But I will quickly defer those to my allegiance to what I perceive as best for my country. But what has been a surprise to me is that I have come to see that I love our world even more than my country.  I want our country to be successful but not at the extreme expense of the rest of the world.  All things being somewhat equal, I will place myself firmly with my country, but in much of my adult life things have been far from equal.  I suspect that in this century that will change.  I can only hope that change will be for the better of the world.

There are those that blindly reject the world beyond our country and demand unthinking patriotism to our country and only our country at all times and all situations.  I see these individuals as similar to the schoolyard bully that demands your lunch money, they are sick, demented and psychologically twisted human beings.  They should be ignored, shunned and broadly denounced by the rest of us.