ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : A Patriot? One Not Afraid to Challenge Injustice

Most Americans enjoy being patriotic. I still feel a “rush” saluting the flag and singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the ballgame. Some folks I know would prefer to be labeled unreligious rather than un-American.

What is a patriot? Were the suffragettes patriots in 1848, demanding their right to vote? Or today, those who sport American flags pasted on car windows?

Strange, this Gulf War euphoria. We justly cheer our returning troops with remarkable minimal casualties. We are proud of a knockout blow in the first round.

What has been accomplished? Saddam Hussein still brutally rules and Kuwaiti oil wells burn. Is it human to righteously self-congratulate our dominating might and be indifferent to the thousands upon thousands of lives destroyed?

Americans want to believe in our country! That its principal export is the dignity of freedom and humanitarian rights for all. Can a loyal citizen look away from the “death squads” our Administration continues to support in Central America? Or ignore the horror of Tian An Men Square?

“PC” is in these days. It means “politically correct.” The more PC, the more patriotic one appears. “Rocking the boat” is hardly a cozy exercise, but some of the intrepid “politically incorrect” are committed to try.

Patriotism, means love of the fatherland. Fatherhood denotes propagating life, not its opposite. When patriotism degenerates to nationalism, then Stephan Decatur’s reckless, “ My country right or wrong,” becomes the norm. If you believe this, then the Nazis were right, and so was Saddam Hussein.

Any thinking person must wonder whether the arbitrary and artificial borders imposed between nations are worth a single human life. Most national leaders think so. And so we march because it always has been done that way. “Patriotism,” according to Bertrand Russell, “is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.” Will there ever be another way? That is what I hear the war protesters saying: There has to be a more intelligent solution to violence. But mankind has not yet evolved to the wisdom of universal amity. That is why I believe the protesters should make their statement.

I was a commissioned U.S. Navy chaplain from 1950 to 1980. Half of that service was with the Marines, and many are the treasured memories. Half in jest some Marine officers would put their padre on; “Are you a Berrigan priest?” (The Berrigan Brothers of the 60s dramatically protested the Vietnam War and did time for it.) My response: “That is exactly what we are fighting for--the privilege to protest.”

This nation is founded on protest. The founding fathers were treasonable rebels. Their sense of honor did not include mindless conformity to the reigning sovereign. They respected a value higher than a narrow, unquestioning submission to a legitimate authority. The Declaration of Independence eloquently affirms their ethic. This precious document clearly defines that our allegiance is owed not to a government, a leader, the military or the flag, but to human beings, mankind, us!

For its author, Thomas Jefferson, dissent was not only a right but a necessity. Dissonance has been one of America’s noblest traditions. Ten years after the Revolution, Shay’s Rebellion found poor farmers challenging the moneyed elite. Vigilant citizens in every generation since have suffered to enlarge civil rights for deprived minorities.

So, what is a patriot? For me, one who loves his country enough to speak up and protest whenever justice is not served and human rights neglected by national policy anywhere on earth.

Surely this would be a tidier, less-noisy land if we all agreed on uniformity of thought. The Gestapo and the KGB were efficient in this. If our nation had been founded on goose-stepping allegiance to the ruling authority, today we would be saluting the Union Jack instead of the cherished Stars and Stripes.