Love of Country

Love of Country

Sergeant Joseph Collette was killed in Afghanistan on March 21^st.  His body was brought to his hometown of Lancaster, Ohio yesterday, with thousands of Lancaster’s citizens coming out to honor his service. He was 29, a newly married young man who sacrificed himself for his comrades and his country (Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.)  He was eleven years old when the war in Afghanistan began.  He will be buried Friday.  He is a hero.

No matter how you feel about the continuing presence of United States troops in Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Syria; you have to honor the men and women who are serving their country and risking their lives there. No one is being drafted to go and fight, these are volunteers.  And, while Sergeant Collette was on his first tour in Afghanistan, many have been asked to go back again and again.  Most return home eventually, but many are damaged by their experiences, changed for life by what they were required to do or witness.

I had a discussion yesterday with a friend about honoring the Sergeant’s service.  My friend remembered that returning Vietnam veterans were not treated with the respect and honor that we show our current service members, and made it clear that to him, either you support the current President, or you are against our soldiers.  After some calculation I determined that my friend was eight years old at the end of the Vietnam War. 

I was eighteen when the war in Vietnam ended in 1975. The war had been winding down for a couple of years, and while I had a draft registration card in my wallet, no one was drafted from my age group to go to Vietnam. I was strongly against the war, and as a teenager I marched in protest against it.  I never protested the veterans of the war, and in fact, many of them joined in protest as well.  But I also have friends who fought in Vietnam, who came home to be personally attacked.  They were told to change out of their uniforms at the San Francisco airport when they arrived from Da Nang, to avoid being harassed by protestors.  

That was wrong then, as it would be wrong now.  But somehow the actions of those protestors in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, has been conflated with those who are appalled by the actions of our current President.  The logic seems to be:  liberals were against Vietnam and some acted dishonorably against returning soldiers, so, the liberals that are against the President today are dishonorable.   My friend claimed “patriotism” and “the flag” as his ideological own, drawing a straight line from the hippie/protestors of the 1960’s to today’s opposition to President Trump.

I guess in my case there is some accuracy in the drawing, though I was hardly a “hippie/protestor.” I was against Vietnam, and I am against the actions of President Trump.  But I don’t accept that this means I am not patriotic; I see my opposition to “Trumpism” as honoring my nation.   Patriotism is defined as “love for or devotion to one’s country (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary).”  Both in the 1960’s and today, my opposition to some of the policies of our government is the most patriotic stand I can take.  If our government, in Vietnam then, or at the Southern border today, acts immorally or improperly, it is my duty as an American citizen to call out those actions as wrong.  This is the absolute definition of love and devotion.

I can be against the President, and proudly fly the American flag.  I can protest the actions that the US government is taking in my name, and love my country.  And I can ask that we can find a way out of our eighteen-year war in Afghanistan, while still honoring the service of the men and women who fight in our name there.  I am asking for them to be relieved of their burden, a burden they have voluntarily taken on for us.  

Patriotism is not described by a #MAGA hat, but it can be shown in the honoring of military sacrifice in Lancaster, Ohio this week; or in protests for the Mueller Report throughout the nation today.  Both are acts of love for our country.