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A veteran physical education teacher of 20 years faces charges of assaulting a student for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance at Angevine Middle School in Colorado. Students have the expressed right of standing or sitting for the Pledge. School officials have since placed her on administrative leave pending an investigation.
This incident comes in the context of the swirling controversy, flamed by Donald Trump to a “white”-hot intensity, over Colin Kaepernick and the movement he spawned in taking a knee during the National Anthem at NFL games to highlight the deplorable treatment of people of color in our nation, and specifically, the deadly police actions taken against unarmed black and brown men.
The 50 stars and 13 strips on our flag of red, white, and blue represent a collective image of the United States of America. In this regard, Merriam Webster defines “patriotism” as: “a love for or devotion to one’s country,” and “nationalism” as: “loyalty and devotion to a nation; especially: a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups. ”
While the United States symbolizes a beautiful nation founded on a noble concept, a vibrant idea, and a vital and enduring vision, as a country, it remains still a work in process progressing toward but not yet attaining and not yet reaching that concept, that idea, and that vision.
Possibly what separates the patriot from the nationalist is that the patriot understands and witnesses the divide and the gap between the reality and the promise of their country and its people. The nationalist, though, is often not aware that a gap even exists between the potential and the reality.
A true patriot is a person who, indeed, loves their country (though not necessarily viewing it as “exceptional”), but also one who sees the way things are, and one who attempts to make change for the better. A patriot also views other countries with respect and admiration, as valued members of an interconnected and interdependent world community.
By refusing to stand, place one’s hand over one’s heart, remove hats and other apparel from the head (an inherently Christian tradition going against the covering of the head in many other religious communities), and pledge one’s allegiance or sing the words and tune of the Star-Spangled Banner, people are raising important questions concerning what it means to be patriotic and an active participant in our democratic process.
During the Vietnam War era, those of us who challenged the war were met with signs and bumper stickers demanding: “America, love it or leave it.” Our response to this was “American, change it or lose it.”
Yes, a Patriot sees things the way they are and tries to make them better.
At my first university serving then as a visiting assistant professor, new faculty members were asked to sign an “Amended Oath of Allegiance,” one that, we were told, professors throughout the state were required to sign. The Oath read as follows:
“I do hereby pledge and declare that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of New York, and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of Visiting Assistant Professor according to the best of my ability.”
I’ve seen people having to sign loyalty oaths during the infamous McCarthy period of the post-World War II era. I’ve seen artists having to sign loyalty oaths imposed by Jesse Helms, former Senator of North Carolina, to be eligible for grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. On moral and ethical grounds, I refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance as did several of my colleagues.
My paternal grandfather was profiled for having a Jewish-sounding name during the 1920s, ’30s, and ‘40s in the anti-Semitic environment of Los Angeles. He was prevented from landing a job until he Anglicized his name changing it from Abraham Blumenfeld to Eddy Fields.
Those of us who challenge our government’s and our nation’s industries’ actions are monitored. I’m sure by now that my FBI file is quite extensive: anti-war activist during the Vietnam War era, active member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), an organizing member of the Gay Liberation Front of San José, California and Washington, DC; member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), and Queer Nation in Boston; arrested for sitting in at the South Vietnam embassy in DC hoping to stop a war, and then at John Hancock Insurance Company headquarters in Boston and again at Astra Pharmaceuticals in Westborough, Massachusetts hoping for compassionate use drug therapy distribution for people with compromised immune systems.
Yes, a Patriot sees things the way they are and tries to make them better.
Congress established The House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1938 to investigate and eliminate alleged “Communists” and “Communist supporters” from the country. The Committee first went after the Hollywood film industry, and specifically those who would eventually be called “The Hollywood 10”: a group of prominent screen writers, producers, and directors, most of whom were Jewish. They were continually hounded by the FBI, ordered to “name names,” and threatened with imprisonment.
The “10” refused to cooperate with investigators on charges that they were attempting to overthrow the United States government, and the Committee jailed them for contempt of Congress. History would show that the Committee’s actions were based solely on false rumors and fear mongering. However, the persecutions ruined distinguished careers and destroyed families.
In February 1950, a relatively young and brash U.S. Republican Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, provocatively claimed in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia that 205 “card-carrying Communists” worked for the U.S. State Department. In part as a response to McCarthy’s allegations, Deputy Undersecretary of State, John Peurifoy, testified at a Senate appropriations committee meeting on February 28, 1950 that several persons had been fired for being “security risks,” including 91 homosexuals.
These disclosures set off a firestorm. Within one month, Republicans in Congress ordered investigations looking into the extent of the “homosexual problem” and the “infiltration of sexual perverts” in government.
For the past 40 years, I have chosen neither to pledge allegiance to any flag or to stand and sing any national anthem, for to do so for me amounts to nothing more than hollow gestures. And for people with insufficient background knowledge of our history, our multiple cultures, our people, and our relationships to other countries of the world, what are they pledging allegiance to?
Let us never forget that this nation, this E Pluribus Unum (“from many, one”) came the diversity from the entire world: the traditions, the languages, the cultures, the religions, the belief systems, the totality of the human experience, which must be acknowledged, supported, cherished, valued, and nurtured.
But what ever happened to that grand U.S. vision of a wall separating religion and government, more commonly known as a “separation of Church and state,” even though primarily Christian houses of worship take “church” as their titled designation? “Under God” certainly has much more than a religious tinge.
“Indivisible”…yes, possibly in the sense of a commitment to make this “a more perfect union,” but with this experiment we call “The United States of America,” the process, our democratic process, is bound to be messy, with divisions and fractures inevitable, but hopefully with mechanisms and systems continually expanding that encourage diversity of thought and identity while maintaining the process of perennial change and progress.
Though defined in many ways depending on the individual, I see “liberty” as individuals’ inherent right to define, to identity, to name themselves, to develop and maintain their sense of agency and subjectivity without others defining or controlling them. Rather than fearing or attempting to discourage critically thinking, we must, instead, fire, in George Orwell’s terms in his classic 1984, the “thought police.” And when we say “justice for all,” we must be certain this is exactly what we mean.
A Patriot, yes indeed, sees things the way they are and tries to make them better.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images