Opinion: In today’s pages: American patriotism, Darfur attacks, Amish murders one year later
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Columnist Jonah Goldberg argues that journalists don’t ever discuss the patriotism that holds the U.S. together:
I’ve come around to the view that the culture war can best be understood as a conflict between two different kinds of patriotism. On the one hand, there are people who believe being an American is all about dissent and change, that the American idea is inseparable from ‘progress.’ America is certainly an idea, but it is not merely an idea. It is also a nation with a culture as real as France’s or Mexico’s. That’s where the other patriots come in; they think patriotism is about preserving Americanness. Yet the strangest and most ironic aspect of our national culture is that we have an aversion to talking about a national culture. Samuel Huntington, one of the country’s premier social scientists, has become something of a pariah for constantly reminding people (in books such as ‘The Clash of Civilizations’ and ‘Who Are We?’) that the United States is a nation, not just a government and a bunch of interest groups.
The New America Foundation’s Tomás R. Jiménez says race isn’t to blame for the academic struggles of Latinos in the U.S. New York University’s Jonathan Zimmerman remembers the murder of Amish school girls one year ago, and what it taught us. UC San Diego’s Barbara F. Walter notes that civil wars usually drag on and rarely produce peace deals.
The editorial board praises rock band Radiohead for coming up with a pay-what-you-want plan to sell its new album. The board thinks Santa Ana city appointees shouldn’t have to choose between blogging and serving the public. The board also weighs in on what the latest attacks in Darfur mean for peace efforts.
Readers react to Bush’s plan to veto an expansion of kids’ healthcare. Marcia D’Amico of Portland, Ore. writes, “By threatening to veto this bill, Bush once again proves that while he champions the rights of the unborn, he cares little for the child once it leaves the womb.”