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patriotism
Feb. 15th, 2006 07:21 pmWell - I went up home yesterday to get things ready for my parents - stopped in at the post office to pick up their mail, and the postmistress just gave it to me without asking for the box number or key or anything. Neat! Of course, she's known me for years, but it's still really nice that there are places in the U.S. where you can get that sort of friendly and personal service. A wonderful thing about small rural towns!
However, while driving to the store, I passed a sign near the green. It read: "We support our troops. Anytime, Anywhere, for Any reason." That gave me pause. It may simply be a response to the war protesters, who gather on the green every Sunday. It's certainly a sincere sentiment, and written by people who mean well, but it would not really have been out of place in Nazi Germany. "My country, right or wrong," is *not* a patriotic American sentiment, and we are doing a poor job in teaching civics if many people think it is. What is absolutely patriotic, of course, is the people's right to express themselves in a public place, and that's true of the sign writers and the war protesters. Still, I found that sign disturbing.
However, while driving to the store, I passed a sign near the green. It read: "We support our troops. Anytime, Anywhere, for Any reason." That gave me pause. It may simply be a response to the war protesters, who gather on the green every Sunday. It's certainly a sincere sentiment, and written by people who mean well, but it would not really have been out of place in Nazi Germany. "My country, right or wrong," is *not* a patriotic American sentiment, and we are doing a poor job in teaching civics if many people think it is. What is absolutely patriotic, of course, is the people's right to express themselves in a public place, and that's true of the sign writers and the war protesters. Still, I found that sign disturbing.