What's really patriotic

Nicollet Mall Farmer's Market in Minneapolis

Do you love your community, but hate the way patriotism is expressed -- or encouraged -- in the USA?  Here's how you can really show your love for your country, and the people with whom you share it:

1. Buy local.  Support your local community by shopping for food at farmer's markets, and even by buying things like beer and wine that are produced locally.  I bet your state has at least one really excellent craft beer available that was brewed in the state.

2. If you must own a car, buy an American car.  This isn't as cut-and-dry as it seems at face value, of course, since many of the cars we make here have parts made elsewhere, or are assembled in other countries.  But it is a start.

Chevrolet Cobalt

3. Support unions.  Unions ensure that the workers who make your clothing, cars, and infrastructure, as well as those who teach our children, care for our sick and elderly, and many, many more things, are well-compensated and continue to have the right to negotiate for better pay, health insurance, and working conditions.

4. Support renewable and clean energy.  No, coal is not "clean."  By supporting these types of energy, we will lessen our reliance on foreign energy sources.  No, the Keystone XL pipeline isn't good enough.  We don't need to continue our reliance on oil; this much is abundantly clear and painfully obvious.  Oil is not renewable.  Oil is not renewable.  Once more for good measure:  Oil is not renewable.  Causing immense pollution and ecological disaster will not make it so, and the terrorists will not win because we have some windmills.  I'm also convinced that the people who claim that windmills and wind farms are eyesores have either never seen one in real life, or they are simply lying in hopes that the public will decide they agree with them.  Because wind farms are some of the coolest-looking human-made structures I've ever seen.  What better way to express your pride in the craftsmanship of our fellow citizens than by taking a moment to appreciate some of the profoundly amazing things that we've built?

Minneapolis Public Library

5. Visit local, state, and national parks and libraries.  These invaluable public resources are kept and maintained for our enjoyment, and are public places that we can all enjoy.  Get out of your house once in a while and see what your community -- and your tax dollars -- have to offer.

6. Learn about the history of your town, city, and/or state.  Learning where you come from will help you understand why you're there.  Learn about the people who founded the town or city where you live.  Learn about the cultural history that shaped, and continues to influence, where you live.  

Off-shore wind farm on Cape Cod

It is notable that many of these suggestions involve pride in one's local community, rather than the entire country as a whole.  It's no secret that I have immense civic pride-- I love Minneapolis, and the Midwest as a whole.  I find this to be very different from a blind allegiance to one's nation.

This local pride, as opposed to nationalist pride, should please right-wingers who constantly extol the benefits of stronger states' rights, as they pretend to believe in a more localized governing of our country, as many of the Founders intended.  Of course, they're lying, and only follow such principles (or claim to believe in them) when it benefits them-- never when profit may be directed elsewhere by the real free market.  And anyway, following any number of these recommendations would be unfavorable to those who perpetuate the jingoistic, fascist kind of patriotism that we face today.  We all know there isn't enough massive profit for multinational corporations to make if we all bought local.  And if we all started using the library more often, they might have to admit what we already know -- that taxes are, in fact, useful and beneficial.  And, of course, sustainable energy doesn't make any money for Big Oil and Big Coal, so they'll do anything to oppose it.  Also, knowledge is dangerous to them because it helps foster a true democracy, and they all know that if the people were really in charge as we're always told we are, that they wouldn't get away with the massive exploitation of humans and the environment that they do now.  Hell, it's probably only a matter of time before the shock doctrine kicks in everywhere, and we don't even have the options listed above available to us anymore.

Good luck to us, I guess.

What are some ways that you show your pride in your community?

9/11 and Patriotism

Like most American kids, I was raised to believe I was born in the best country in the whole world, the only truly free place on earth, and that the United States military were our heroes, because it was because of them that we are free.  I learned quickly that one of the reasons America was so great was because we all got to vote.  We had mock voting booths and elections every Election Day in all schools I went to.  We said the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning in elementary school, at least for the first few years, and I didn't think much of it.  Actually, what I remember most from saying the Pledge was being afraid to put my hand directly over my heart, because I was afraid that I'd discover it wasn't actually beating.  (I don't know, I was a weird kid.)

When 9/11 happened, I had just turned 18, and had just graduated high school.  I was talking with Army and National Guard recruiters about joining, just before the attack happened, because I had always entertained a sort of secret interest in joining the military, and was ready to take it a little further.  I thought "the discipline would be good for me," and of course, the college benefits.  I didn't have any college plans, and I wasn't interested in working a low-paying retail job forever.  I was also interested in serving my country, and traveling.  A lot of my desire to join, though, came from a sense of pride that I felt when I thought about my dad and uncle and other members of my family who had served in various branches of the military.  I wanted to have that sense of pride for myself.

I'm glad I didn't join, for a multitude of reasons, but it's got me thinking about what patriotism really means, and my relationship to it.  

When I hear patriotic songs -- especially when I hear people singing them live -- like the Star Spangled Banner, or even the cheesier ones like Proud to be an American, I still feel chills and tear up.  I still feel this way when I see military formations and think about things like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  [edited to add: although, it is incredibly unsettling to see a giant military plane fly low over your townhouse complex on 9/11... I mean, goodness, my heart is still racing.] And it's very strange, because it's directly contradictory to the way that I feel about these things intellectually.  I am not "proud" to be an American.  I don't believe it makes sense to be proud of being accidentally born somewhere, and I don't believe that glorifying the military in the blind and uncritical way that we are wont to do in this country is wise or beneficial.  I see it for what it is: nationalist propaganda and pulling the wool over our eyes. To be proud of our country and participate in the kind of patriotism that is encouraged here means I would be affiliating myself with the kind of disgusting barbarians who cheer when it's mentioned that Rick Perry has enthusiastically allowed for the murder of the most Texan prisoners ever during his governorship.  It means I have to be connected to the kind of people who really love and identify with one of the most disgusting displays of "patriotism" ever heard in a song, that awful one by Toby Keith about putting boots in the asses of innocent Iraqi civilians.  

Of course, people don't have to be patriotic in the same way as other people.  But you know what, I'm just not interested in "patriotism" at all.  Not one bit.  I'm not interested in the divisive mentality that arises from the mistaken and patently false notion that we are "the best country on earth"; I don't even know what that's supposed to mean anymore.  Politicians from all stripes claim to have pride in our country; it's like a requirement to be taken seriously as a candidate, to utter such meaningless statements like they're going out of style (I'd actually argue that they are going out of style).

To bring my convoluted point home, I've been dreading today.  My Facebook news feed is littered with pictures of crying eagles flying over the Twin Towers and American flags galore, not to mentioned blubbering tributes to all of our heroes (without a mention that they were sent overseas to die completely in vain because of lies our government told us about who was responsible for the attacks).  The whole "support our troops!!!1!!!" meme that gets passed around is unsettling-- you don't hear that line from anyone who doesn't believe we should be murdering innocent civilians all over the world, who wish for real peace in the world.  You hear it from people who get off thinking about how awesome guns and wars and Toby Keith are.  People who talk about how backwards and awful brown people with funny religions are.  I don't want to hear this so-called support for our troops from these people; I want to hear it from people who want our troops to stop being sent off to their deaths for reasons that go well beyond "protecting our freedom," from people who are upset that so many of our service men and women come home from multiple stints overseas and commit suicide.  I want to hear it form people who take "support our troops" to mean "don't cheer for our soldiers to be murdered because of lies from the government."  I want to hear it from people who actually care about our troops -- not from people who just love being at war and flexing their "America's the best!!!" muscles.  Why don't more people who claim to be patriotic actually care about our country?  No wonder we're all plagued with a deep sense of hopelessness and cynicism.  What a joke we've all been told for so long.   

It's not that I resent people memorializing the victims of this attack, or people remembering it (although I'll quote another friend of mine, who said this on Facebook: "Is it so wrong of me 2 say I don't wanna watch/hear stuff about 9/11 all day?? Its impossible to forget, I don't need anyone telling me "never forget" uggghh....").  I just want everyone to drop the patriotic bullshit and open their goddamn eyes.