OK LET'S ALL BE PATRIOTIC. (Frazer Chronicle)
Take up the flag, carry it with pride, stand tall and love the country, it all seemed so easy. I remember as a child how I felt about the country that I was born in, and the differences between "us" and "them." I grew up hating and held a genuine fear of Japanese, Germans and Italians peoples, after all I was born in 1943, and I think my father was a conscientious objector to the war(s), which sent mixed messages, but I overcame.
In the true sense of the phrase, dad never stated to me that he was "against" any part of the second world war, he just used a medical condition to stay at home. His objection to the war wasn't based on his right to object to preform military service on the grounds of "freedom of thought, conscience, or religion." My dad simply wanted to stay alive and whole, he was afraid, not a coward, and couldn't see the "big picture."
I can remember a really old guy when I was a kid, Walter Scheldrophf, who served in the first world war as just a plain soldier, and was ordered by a Captain to charge up a hill to help his fellow buddies. His retort, "why don't you go, I don't want to get my head blown off."
Was my father unpatriotic, was Walter Scheldrophf unpatriotic, down at the end of the line, when both men answered to a higher authority, I don't think so. Both men wanted to live and both men drew a line in the sand and refused to cross that line. Both men were good husbands, both worked their entire lives, and both raised families, paid taxes and never broke the law. Maybe that makes them "silent" patriots," the vast majority of men who supported their country, but refused blind obedience to their country.
The word, "patriotism" comes from the Latin Patria or fatherland, suggests the loyalty that all citizen owe to their country or nation. With varying degrees of intensity, nearly all Americans claim to be patriotic citizens of the republic. But the term also has a narrower, more specific history, with sharper political implications. During the more then two hundred years of the country's history, patriotism has tended to shift from a left to a right-wing cause.
I'm not here to give "free" history lessons, and I'm not here to "bend" your thinking to my point of view. I love my country, am proud to be counted as one of the country's citizens and do believe in the basic American core of values, freedom, the right to seek worthwhile employment, be able to chose my religion and to live and let live.
Those folks that have chosen to volunteer for military service, are to be commended, and given the materials to do the work of soldiering, to be paid a competitive wage, and afforded all the medical treatment necessary as well as whatever follow-up care that might be needed, including up to and including life long care.
The wars that the United States are in at the present time, I do not agree with, have never agreed with from day one and of course will never agree with. Our governmental leaders have simply made war way to easy to wage. As a country, we are "detached" from the carnage that is war, from the dastardly deeds that help to make war unpalatable for the vast majority of patriots in the country.
Many of the practices that our country employees during these war years is disgusting and are unconscionable. The American military now, is simply making war to make war, political figures and leaders are now financing war to line the pockets of those in the "industrial military complex" who profit from war.
"America will always fight for liberty," and "to have and to hold, buy war bonds" are just two of the hundreds of phrases that drove Americans to fight during the second world war. They are outdated in today's world, why, because the military is not fighting for our liberty, and we have absolutely no right to hold any foreign country, or it's assets.
Our country is no more blessed then the least of the countries that we now occupy, and I hold absolutely no responsibility for what is happening. I am calling a spade a spade, the United States is acting like a "bully boy," completely out of control. Sadly our "come-uppons" is just around the corner. Like all tyrants throughout the history of the world, we are pursuing our own interests, and implementing rules to keep governments and people in alignment with our agenda.
I am still proud to be an American, and am happy in the knowledge that I can write my opinions without fear of retribution. America is a great country, and just as soon as we face our shortcomings, and move to right them, we will always be on the brink of a third world country. America, love it.....and change it.
Take up the flag, carry it with pride, stand tall and love the country, it all seemed so easy. I remember as a child how I felt about the country that I was born in, and the differences between "us" and "them." I grew up hating and held a genuine fear of Japanese, Germans and Italians peoples, after all I was born in 1943, and I think my father was a conscientious objector to the war(s), which sent mixed messages, but I overcame.
In the true sense of the phrase, dad never stated to me that he was "against" any part of the second world war, he just used a medical condition to stay at home. His objection to the war wasn't based on his right to object to preform military service on the grounds of "freedom of thought, conscience, or religion." My dad simply wanted to stay alive and whole, he was afraid, not a coward, and couldn't see the "big picture."
I can remember a really old guy when I was a kid, Walter Scheldrophf, who served in the first world war as just a plain soldier, and was ordered by a Captain to charge up a hill to help his fellow buddies. His retort, "why don't you go, I don't want to get my head blown off."
Was my father unpatriotic, was Walter Scheldrophf unpatriotic, down at the end of the line, when both men answered to a higher authority, I don't think so. Both men wanted to live and both men drew a line in the sand and refused to cross that line. Both men were good husbands, both worked their entire lives, and both raised families, paid taxes and never broke the law. Maybe that makes them "silent" patriots," the vast majority of men who supported their country, but refused blind obedience to their country.
The word, "patriotism" comes from the Latin Patria or fatherland, suggests the loyalty that all citizen owe to their country or nation. With varying degrees of intensity, nearly all Americans claim to be patriotic citizens of the republic. But the term also has a narrower, more specific history, with sharper political implications. During the more then two hundred years of the country's history, patriotism has tended to shift from a left to a right-wing cause.
I'm not here to give "free" history lessons, and I'm not here to "bend" your thinking to my point of view. I love my country, am proud to be counted as one of the country's citizens and do believe in the basic American core of values, freedom, the right to seek worthwhile employment, be able to chose my religion and to live and let live.
Those folks that have chosen to volunteer for military service, are to be commended, and given the materials to do the work of soldiering, to be paid a competitive wage, and afforded all the medical treatment necessary as well as whatever follow-up care that might be needed, including up to and including life long care.
The wars that the United States are in at the present time, I do not agree with, have never agreed with from day one and of course will never agree with. Our governmental leaders have simply made war way to easy to wage. As a country, we are "detached" from the carnage that is war, from the dastardly deeds that help to make war unpalatable for the vast majority of patriots in the country.
Many of the practices that our country employees during these war years is disgusting and are unconscionable. The American military now, is simply making war to make war, political figures and leaders are now financing war to line the pockets of those in the "industrial military complex" who profit from war.
"America will always fight for liberty," and "to have and to hold, buy war bonds" are just two of the hundreds of phrases that drove Americans to fight during the second world war. They are outdated in today's world, why, because the military is not fighting for our liberty, and we have absolutely no right to hold any foreign country, or it's assets.
Our country is no more blessed then the least of the countries that we now occupy, and I hold absolutely no responsibility for what is happening. I am calling a spade a spade, the United States is acting like a "bully boy," completely out of control. Sadly our "come-uppons" is just around the corner. Like all tyrants throughout the history of the world, we are pursuing our own interests, and implementing rules to keep governments and people in alignment with our agenda.
I am still proud to be an American, and am happy in the knowledge that I can write my opinions without fear of retribution. America is a great country, and just as soon as we face our shortcomings, and move to right them, we will always be on the brink of a third world country. America, love it.....and change it.
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