Patriots and Victims
I became politically “aware” in the late 1960’s. I grew up in the heat of the civil rights and anti-war movements; both were part of my day-to-day world. It was a time of turmoil: a time when Americans were at odds with each other, and with their views of what America was.
One of the bumper sticker slogans I remember from that time was, “AMERICA – LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.” It meant that if you wanted to change America, by ending the Vietnam War, or by fighting for full civil rights for minorities, then somehow you didn’t love America, and you should get out. It meant that questioning authority was somehow un-American, that wanting to make America “better” in your own view wasn’t acceptable for an American citizen.
So here we are, fifty years later. We are perhaps as divided now as we were then, though it seems to me that things were terribly divided then too. And I hear the same sentiment now that I remember from those days.
There is a Facebook “meme” going around – it’s a picture of an American Flag flying from the front porch of a house. It demands that if you’d fly the flag, you should share the “meme.” It originates from a group that favors President Trump, and it implies that those that support him support the flag – and those that don’t are against it.
President Trump has tried to forward this claim, literally wrapping himself in “the flag” on issue after issue. He has convinced a large group of Americans that their fellow citizens who use flag ceremonies as an opportunity to express their grievances about America are un-American. If you are against Trump, you must be against the flag. That is the farthest from the truth.
There is nothing more American than protest. There is nothing more American than voicing your views, and trying to change America for what you believe is the better. America began in protest and revolution. How can the descendants, actual or political, of Washington and Jefferson, and Sam Adams, Thomas Paine and Crispus Attucks; somehow claim that protest is un-American. It is how we began. It is in the DNA of our nation.
On the other side, there is a terrible condescension in the anti-Trump, Resistance movement. It is summed up with one term: deplorables. With that one term, we dismiss the concerns of our fellow Americans, we mark them as ignorant, irredeemable, and backward. That is just as wrong as “…LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.” It denies their legitimate grievances; that the America they thought they knew has changed so radically that they are left out of the American dream. They aren’t wrong, the pace of change in the past twenty years has been dramatic; it is no wonder some feel pushed to the side.
And there are Americans who are so frustrated that they look to easy answers to explain what has occurred. Conspiracies and theories; stories of dreaded cabals of varying kinds that have “taken” our country have found fertile ground in the turmoil of our times. The changes have happened so fast, and been so dramatic; that it is easy to think there must be some dark and shady forces with purpose behind them.
And the crisis hasn’t yet been reached. We, Americans, have a “fiery trial” still to go through; it will be years before we can put this time in our lives into the past, before reconciliation. But even in the passion and heat of the coming crisis, we, Americans, need to recognize that no one side of the argument has a full monopoly on what is right; or what is American.
There’s a flag flying from my front porch. It’s been there for years. It symbolizes the nation we can be, even if that is not the nation we are. James Madison said it best: “…a more perfect Union…” We are still “perfecting” our Union; two-hundred and thirty-one years after he wrote those words. No matter where you stand on the issues of our time, fly the flag: it represents the nation YOU want to perfect. That’s as American as it gets.
I teach recent immigrants and these issues are difficult. Some come from countries where dissent is punishable by death and they have been taught that protest is really bad and should never happen. How to explain the 60’s to them! I’ve been asked if I’m patriotic and that’s an hard question to answer. I usually say that I love my country but I’m not happy with many of the things that are currently happening. Since they’ve come here for similar reasons, that answer is acceptable. I also fly a flag. Strange times.