jerseyfinn
Senior
There's truth in those quotes and truth in Veritas. Thanks very much for the quotes as they do indeed speak to the essence of our nation.
But you do not isolate patriotism as a single attribute of citizenship -- and remember citizenship is a right confered upon the individual which carries both promises/guarantees and obligations. Patriotism is similar to parenting. It involves love, devotion, and trust and it sometimes requires tough decisions and dissent ( tough love?), as well as patience and humility.
But you wield patriotism here more like a cudgel. And your cudgel is based upon a (false) assumption that your view or interpretation of the President and his policies is the "right" or "correct" view. Actually, this is quite understandable when one feel passionately and strongly about their own world view.
The reality is that the world is bigger than all of us. Certainly Mr. Bush has gotten his come uppance when Iraq does not kow tow to democracy or to American force. Taken in isolation, this appears to be an abject failure. Taken in the context of the world, it's an event taken a bad turn as human beings struggle to move forward. Mr. Bush does not lack compassion or a desire to do right. He does lack the capacity to click his heels and wish his way back to the good old days -- but so too do all of us. And the world and its dangers is not static while we argue microscopically about Iraq or a flawed president.
Our citizenship or patriotism as you call it, requires much of each of us as well. Dissent is the easy part. Wisdom is the elusive element which can help both presidents and individuals to find the less dangerous path. Humility teaches all of us that we all err and stumble and that there are times when you step aside and aver helping and there are times when you lend a reluctant hand not to help an individual you dislike, but to act in a sense of family, comminuty and nation. This act does not require any of us to disavow our beliefs, but it does stengthen our relationships. This is a much stronger and more enduring form of patriotism/citizenship.
I don't see the Iraq situation or terrorism or anything else in terms of black and white or right and wrong. President Bsuh has f*cked up big time, but so too has he tried to act for the good of others. He's not the evil man or innate jackass that some folks say. Neither is he an historic leader and man of limitless wisdom. One reason that this Iraq debate has become so foul, so ugly, and so poliltically rancid is becasue each of us has allowed it become so.
That politicians take short cuts with facts, policy, and actions is part and parcel of the political creature. That the media takes the breadth of facts and distills them into sound bytes and snippets of cliche and hyperbole which distort and seperate real facts from the larger world around them is disturbing. That citizens for the most part do not question this process and fall into convenient camps of us versus them (the "us" camp is always the "correct" camp of course) without first asking what the real facts are weakens the matrix of the nation.
Everyone is so busy pushing their own "My Space" version of reality and what is wrong or right with the President or this or that policy that no one is pausing to listen to others around them and in the process, to feel the pulse of reality. If we did so, we would each concede ground as this Iraq situation remains ugly and dangerous and the nation as a whole must move towards a consensus which is built upon realism and not acrimony and a "majority rules" mentality ( didn't work in the 1950s South and won't work in today's larger world ). Life is not a game of winner take all. It's about getting your act together and trying to face the next day ( and the troubles/hopes/dangers it holds ). This country is so splintered at the moment by abject acrimony on both sides that no one is prepared to face the future. Has anyone considered chilling and simply supporting our troops plain sans condionalisms or insults? It's serious stuff, and the sooner we admit such, the sooner politicos and the media will have to pause to listen to the silence. An election looms which requires decisions of substance, not interest-group-driven revenge and excess.
Stepping down from soap box.
AMF
Barry
But you do not isolate patriotism as a single attribute of citizenship -- and remember citizenship is a right confered upon the individual which carries both promises/guarantees and obligations. Patriotism is similar to parenting. It involves love, devotion, and trust and it sometimes requires tough decisions and dissent ( tough love?), as well as patience and humility.
But you wield patriotism here more like a cudgel. And your cudgel is based upon a (false) assumption that your view or interpretation of the President and his policies is the "right" or "correct" view. Actually, this is quite understandable when one feel passionately and strongly about their own world view.
The reality is that the world is bigger than all of us. Certainly Mr. Bush has gotten his come uppance when Iraq does not kow tow to democracy or to American force. Taken in isolation, this appears to be an abject failure. Taken in the context of the world, it's an event taken a bad turn as human beings struggle to move forward. Mr. Bush does not lack compassion or a desire to do right. He does lack the capacity to click his heels and wish his way back to the good old days -- but so too do all of us. And the world and its dangers is not static while we argue microscopically about Iraq or a flawed president.
Our citizenship or patriotism as you call it, requires much of each of us as well. Dissent is the easy part. Wisdom is the elusive element which can help both presidents and individuals to find the less dangerous path. Humility teaches all of us that we all err and stumble and that there are times when you step aside and aver helping and there are times when you lend a reluctant hand not to help an individual you dislike, but to act in a sense of family, comminuty and nation. This act does not require any of us to disavow our beliefs, but it does stengthen our relationships. This is a much stronger and more enduring form of patriotism/citizenship.
I don't see the Iraq situation or terrorism or anything else in terms of black and white or right and wrong. President Bsuh has f*cked up big time, but so too has he tried to act for the good of others. He's not the evil man or innate jackass that some folks say. Neither is he an historic leader and man of limitless wisdom. One reason that this Iraq debate has become so foul, so ugly, and so poliltically rancid is becasue each of us has allowed it become so.
That politicians take short cuts with facts, policy, and actions is part and parcel of the political creature. That the media takes the breadth of facts and distills them into sound bytes and snippets of cliche and hyperbole which distort and seperate real facts from the larger world around them is disturbing. That citizens for the most part do not question this process and fall into convenient camps of us versus them (the "us" camp is always the "correct" camp of course) without first asking what the real facts are weakens the matrix of the nation.
Everyone is so busy pushing their own "My Space" version of reality and what is wrong or right with the President or this or that policy that no one is pausing to listen to others around them and in the process, to feel the pulse of reality. If we did so, we would each concede ground as this Iraq situation remains ugly and dangerous and the nation as a whole must move towards a consensus which is built upon realism and not acrimony and a "majority rules" mentality ( didn't work in the 1950s South and won't work in today's larger world ). Life is not a game of winner take all. It's about getting your act together and trying to face the next day ( and the troubles/hopes/dangers it holds ). This country is so splintered at the moment by abject acrimony on both sides that no one is prepared to face the future. Has anyone considered chilling and simply supporting our troops plain sans condionalisms or insults? It's serious stuff, and the sooner we admit such, the sooner politicos and the media will have to pause to listen to the silence. An election looms which requires decisions of substance, not interest-group-driven revenge and excess.
Stepping down from soap box.
AMF
Barry
