Patriotism Isn’t Just Red, White and Blue

I asked a friend what she was doing for the Fourth, and she replied, “The same thing we always do, the parade in Huntington Beach.”

She and her husband don’t have young children, so they’re not going for the kids. They just love a parade and, presumably, their country. I should have pressed on whether they go to celebrate the country’s birthday or because they like to stand in the sun and watch people passing slowly by in cars.

Had she asked me what I’d be doing on the Fourth, I would have said, “The same thing I always do -- nothing.”

I haven’t gone to a Fourth of July parade in more than 30 years, and that last one I went to only because my newspaper assigned me to cover it.

Nor would I fly an American flag outside my door or wear one on my lapel. I’d sooner wear stripes with plaids.

Now, before you start shaking your head and pounding the words “liberal elitist jackanapes” in an e-mail, please factor in that I consider myself a patriot. I don’t walk around saying, “I love my country,” but would I get weepy when they play the national anthem at the Olympics if I didn’t? Would I just have slogged through 650 pages of John Adams’ biography if I didn’t love my country’s heritage?

So, here’s my question: Why do some of us make a point of going to a patriotic parade and flying a flag outside our homes, and others don’t?

I’d pontificate, but I don’t have a good feel for the reasons. I don’t know if it relates to varying psychological profiles in people or, merely, a reflection in degrees of patriotism. Are there degrees of patriotism? It seems to me that you either are patriotic or you aren’t. A “Somewhat Patriotic” category sounds silly. Why, then, the disparity in patriotic behaviors?

Help me out. In this most conspicuously American period of the calendar year, why are some of you flag-wavers and some not? Why will some of you stand under a hot sun and watch a Fourth of July parade, and others consider it a pointless way to spend a couple hours?

For my poll, those of you who support the overthrow of the U.S. government need not respond; your reasons would be obvious. Only patriots need apply.

To me, the subject is interesting even in a vacuum. But it just so happens that the U.S. Senate will be considering sometime soon whether the Constitution should be amended to make desecrating the flag unconstitutional. The House, by a 286-130 vote, already has said yes to the question.

I admit to being a mass of contradictions on the subject. I wouldn’t vote for the constitutional amendment, nor do I support criminal punishments for people who desecrate the flag. On the other hand, it riles me when I see people -- Americans or otherwise -- doing just that.

But while some of my fellow Americans would want to beat the tar out of someone who’d burn the flag, I wouldn’t. I’d dislike the deed and, who knows, might even do something to stop it, but it wouldn’t foment rage inside of me.

But I understand perfectly the emotion in those who would rage.

Would I be serving my country if I waded into an angry mob of flag-burners and tried to stop them from disrespecting Old Glory? That’s a toughie, but perhaps out of some twisted thinking, I find myself wondering what President Bush, who does wear a flag lapel, would do in that situation.

I’m unclear from the Adams biography what he would have done, either. Nor can I be sure whether he or Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson would have worn an American flag lapel. Or, whether they would have supported the amendment. Obviously, they didn’t think to argue for it at the time.

This is perhaps much ado about nothing, but if a guy can’t opine about the flag and Fourth of July parades on this weekend, when can he?

Anyway, just thinking out loud.

That’s still constitutional, isn’t it?

Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana .parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.