Still Patriotic?

It’s the Fourth of July. This is America. That used to be a kind of automatic “Hell yeah!” I remember fireworks celebrations by the lakefront in Chicago where the waves of human goodness would wash over me in a sea of every type of people this world has created. All the pettiness, division and strife was put aside for one unifying moment of national celebration.

Right now the country is largely in the dumps about itself. I read that a recent poll found some 3/4 of us think we’re basically screwed up. That’s not the specific question the pollsters asked but it pretty much sums up the general idea.

The grief and dissatisfaction cuts across the political spectrum and I could fill server space right here talking about my take on the blame game. But it’s the Fourth of July and I want to talk about something else.

So I sit here on my porch with my flag over my shoulder in front of a house in a troubled, glorious, ethically pockmarked nation, one with a history chock full of darkness and light.

I still put out the flag on national holidays. I’m kind of a stickler about it though. I’m not the guy who leaves it out there for a week. I like the feeling of putting it up on the day of the celebration, or maybe the day before if it falls on a weekend. Fourth of July fell on a Saturday this year so they declared Friday the “official holiday.” My flag went into that bracket I have screwed to my porch column early Friday morning.

I messed up on Memorial Day. We went for an all-day bike trip and the flag never went up. I felt guilty about it. I want people to know I love this country.

OK. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t like our current President. Those same people also know that coming from me that‘s a colossal understatement. It doesn’t start with me 3 1/2 years ago though. My whole life I have been an American critic. I truly think we have stumbled along for decades doing significant harm to ourselves and the world.

We act as a nation out of self-preservation. We are fixated on a continuity that blinds us to our faults. We imagine a cohesion among us that is aspirational and at times inspirational. But we don’t push to realize it.

Our national ideal is a clumsy and blunt laissez-faire individualism that operates well enough to get by creating a string of apparent successes, yet seems to come up desperately short at times in providing us all with fairness and opportunity.

But I am a patriot. I see a goodness in America that strains to break free from limitations, from the panic, the fear, the anxiety of the unknown. Every day shows new evidence of a generosity of spirit, an exhibition of totally unfounded hope that this can be made right.

We are challenged by this moment in history. Each of us holds an inarticulate dread of national decline. And yet we share that absurd, joyous, completely ridiculous aspect of human nature that can see the glint of light showing the way out.

So I sit here on my porch with my flag over my shoulder in front of a house in a troubled, glorious, ethically pockmarked nation, one with a history chock full of darkness and light. I live in a country that has it all; comfort and division, the rich and the disenfranchised, both stunningly powerful and pathetically weak.

If we can see this country, if we can truly look at it, not judge it or categorize it until we have done so, maybe we can become the patriots this country requires. Not unconditional lovers but a people who discern the part we play in reshaping it through ownership.

The thing we need is to get healthy. I went looking for another term to describe a kind of righteous resolve I think these times require, a different term that could set aside the feel of imposition that “righteousness“ indicates. I picked “healthy”. We all want to get healthy. To be healthy means to be strong, clear-eyed and kind. Healthy means helpful.

We have got to get healthy. We all know doing that takes work and discipline. We know that the health of this nation requires a focus on each of us getting healthy. If any good can be had in this situation with Covid, my hope is that it might shift our focus to each of our responsibilities in achieving mutual health.

I am a patriot because I am a part of this. I am not a nationalist though. My allegiance is based on a utility, it is organizational and purpose driven. It is not ideological. Unless my allegiance to this patriotic concept of unity is directly related to the unity of all humanity, and unless that continuity is demonstrated, that patriotism is misplaced.

I love this country. But more so I love the idea of what this country might be. I am a patriot who is using that to learn to be human. I celebrate my freedom today. But that freedom exists only to serve the goal of becoming a healthy human. And to help with the healing.