From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 17:50:03 MDT
Charles asked
> Is patriotism love of one's country, or love of one's country's
> government? It makes a big difference. Then there's the distinction
> between the ideal image of one's country's government, and any current
> representation...
> What your patriotism identifies as one's focus of love makes a large
> difference.
Yes it does. In an analogy between persons, do you love
your son, or do you love the ideal image of your son?
Samantha writes
> I deeply love the principles this country was founded on. I
> deeply abhor the cancerous growth that dares to posture as the
> legitimate government of a [once] free people. I have no
> loyalty to that which is set to the destruction of what I love.
I'm sorry, but it's not the same thing to "love" the various
high-minded principles that have been enunciated from time to
time in history. I presume that you love the Declaration
of the Rights of Man, or even, if you were to objectively read
it, the Soviet Constitution of the former U.S.S.R. Like the
founding documents of the United States, all these put forth
great principles I'm sure you would love.
Patriotism, or love of country, is not the same thing at all.
Either you have a deep emotional bond to an actual nation and
its people, or you do not. Perhaps only a small majority of
the members of most Western nations today have such a loyalty.
Here, to further remind you of what patriotism consists, is
the Pledge of Allegiance, exactly as I had to recite it on my
first day of school in September 1953:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America, and to the republic for
which it stands, one nation indivisible with
liberty and justice for all.
American patriots are those individuals who can read these
words, and agree with every nuance of sentiment they contain,
and who indeed are themselves allied with that republic.
Lee
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