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July 3, 2007

For Which It Stands

We shouldn’t blindly accept patriotism and reject questioning the government

Story by: Dennis Mitchell

The Shorthorn: Isaac Erickson

A few years ago, I gave up on July Fourth. All that red, white and blue had started to make me sick.

I’m certainly not anti-American, a terrorist sympathizer, a Nazi-fascist-pinko or any other mindless label the Sean Hannitys of the world like to throw around.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, patriotism in the U.S. got a vitamin B-12 shot, and like most people, my sense of devotion to the country spiked.

Raw emotion gave way to analytical reflection. I came to rid myself of patriotic feelings and began to question what exactly our government was doing — and if it was the best thing for the many, the few or for, well, anybody.

Being a good citizen means identifying the nation’s shortcomings and proposing how we can make America better.

Blind adherence to a country’s doctrine is not good citizenry. But we are taught at an early age that towing the line is better then being a detractor.

Millions of kids recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning before class. They are not required to do so, per the Constitution, but many do it anyway to go along with everybody else.

I remember when I was a kid, for the longest time I was pledging “a legiance to the flag, and to the republic for ‘witchit stands,’ one nation, under God, ‘indivisblahblah,’ with liberty and justice for all.”

I had no idea what I was saying. I just knew everybody else was doing it, and I sure didn’t want to be an outsider.

This Fourth of July, Americans will do as they do every year. There will be barbecues and parades, baseball and beer, American flag T-shirts, and Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless America.”

On Thursday, people will go back to their lives, forget about how much they love their country and go back to complaining about all the ways they’re getting screwed by it.

But, like forced patriotism, complaining does nothing but satisfy a psychological need. These are not ways to inspire the masses or enact change. They’re just ways to keep our bellies full.

This, of course, doesn’t go unrecognized by those in power. Quite the opposite. It’s cultivated and counted upon. From flag-burning amendments to modern-day forms of McCarthyism, leaders continue to, as Edward R. Murrow famously put it, “confuse dissent with disloyalty.”

Reciting the pledge in schools didn’t come about randomly. Since it was written in 1892, the pledge has been a subtle brainwashing tool in public schools.

We shouldn’t be forcing patriotism down our students’ throats or into our citizens’ lives, but instead encouraging them to question their government’s actions and take a stand.

Or maybe we should just make Orwell required reading in the second grade.

— Dennis Mitchell is a film graduate student and contributor to The Shorthorn