Patriotism-Where Is It?

PATRIOTISM-WHERE IS IT?      

 
Tom Brokaw’s 2004 book (The Greatest Generation) extolled the virtues of those who served the U.S. in World War Two.  “Greatest” is perhaps an example of tolerable hyperbole employed to describe the extraordinary patriotism that prevailed during those stressful days.   

 Where did it come from?  Why doesn’t it exist today?  Are people different? Or have circumstances changed?

 The year is 1932.  A young boy approached first grade.  Prior to that, he had watched Fourth of July military parades energized by marches composed by John Philip Sousa.

 So he was not surprised when his first day in class began with the Pledge of Allegiance, or when an honored veteran of World War One occasionally appeared at the school to give a stirring talk on the virtues of America. 

 Also, the boy from the first day was introduced to the most original historical tale ever written -- the history of the United States.  For the first time, he read, brilliant men said that all men should be free, and that government should serve, and not lead. 

 And he learned as well that this foundational belief came from an acceptance of the revealed fact that God created man, and that he and his neighbor were special, above all other creatures.

 No man could take an American’s freedom from him, the history books said, and those who believed in that, proved it on battlefield after battlefield.

 As the boy proceeded through the grades, names like Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison became familiar.  Then the great leaders who followed the Founders came into his historical view, and he learned even more about those who fought and died for his right to go to school and, later, to seek a job, to go to a church and to marry the girl he loved.

 And he learned about those in other nations who couldn’t do such things.

 These things he learned from teachers who lived, taught, loved and laughed in a free America -- teachers who were, most of them, as patriotic as those they taught about, or as the soldiers who marched in the huge parades.

 When the boy grew up and Uncle Sam asked him to fight for America’s freedom, the response was automatic.  He and his peers joined up, or they were drafted.  Sure, they beefed about this or that -- as troopers always do -- but the U.S. that their parents and teachers had admired was worth fighting for, the U.S. that they had read about in school, using textbooks that celebrated the growth of a free nation, and the men who founded and protected it. 

 The boy and his peers were patriotic because they had learned how to appreciate the greatest nation on earth, as it had been described to them for years by those whom they respected the most.

 Young people of today are made of the same flesh and blood that is informed by the same five senses.  They are just as capable of loving or hating as anyone else has ever been.  But they’re not as patriotic as the World War Two generation. 

 And the reason for that is simple.  Look at what we’ve become.  How could we expect anything different?  Let’s hear it for multiculturalism.

 There are no more great parades -- these days, cheerleaders prance to a rock beat.  In some quarters, saying the Pledge of Allegiance is considered to be an imposition of political and religious values.  Press reports suggest that American history is not being taught -- youngsters are astoundingly ignorant about how special this nation is.

 Put a quarter into a music box and you’ll get the tune you selected -- like it or not.  Don’t teach history or, worse still, badmouth the U.S. in the classroom and don’t be surprised if youngsters, except for the exceptional ones who are in the services, are not very patriotic.    

 They are what we have created.