I regularly correspond with a former high school sweetheart (we are both deep into our 60's now). She frequently forwards to me email she has received from others. From time to time I have taken issue with some of the sentiments expressed (generally very conservative, preachy, flag-waving stuff). In a recent email she forwarded me an allegedly true story of a K-9 (soldier dog) who had dramatically rescued a squad of soldiers and received a Congressional Medal of Honor. My first reaction was to google the story, find the report to be a hoax, and send an note back to my friend. She apologized and said she forgot that she needed to review such matters to make sure she did not send me anything political or patriotic.
I sensed that I was offended by that remark, what, me not patriotic? I wore a uniform of the US for four years, my father served before me, and a son and grandson after me. I stand (though do not participate in) the pledge of allegiance to the flag (but that is another story). I feel that I am very patriotic, although I am 100% opposed to the present administration's unwarranted attack on and occupation of another soverign nation that did not attack us first.
I began to wonder what makes a person a patriot and can someone, like myself, who is opposed to the unjustified use of military force, still be a patriot. Once again I turned to Thomas Paine, this time in one of his pamphlets The Crisis, written during the War of Independence. His immortal words beginning "These are the times that try men's souls. . . " He talked of summer soldiers and sunshine patriots, he meant people who talked a good fight, but could not be counted on when the going gets rough. So does that equal "my country, right or wrong, my country;" or "stay the course" even if the course was ill-advised in the first place?
I found this article, Beware the Sunshine Patriot, by Steve Kubby, written shortly after 9/11. The article rings true and parallels my take on patriotism and the duty to stand for the highest ideals on which our country was founded.
2 comments:
I read your post and looked at your profile. I see we have bicycling in common. I just purchased a trek 7200 last summer and enjoyed it quite a bit. I also noticed you were (or are) an attorney, another interesting thing, as I have defended myself several times as a pro se litigant. How does that stand with you as a member of the bar, ya know, the pro se thing? Anyway, i was just browsing through cyberspace and thought I would leave a mark that I was here. Good luck with the fishing! peace.
Last Panther, I just noticed the comment today, or maybe I read it before and forgot (senior moment). Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my post and leave a comment.
Trek is a good bike. I love my new Lemond because it is so light. But even at that I had to change out the cassette to add a few more teeth. SRAM makes a compatible cassette that has 28 teeth, three more than what came on my Shimano Ultegra cassette.
With regard to pro se, it really doesnt't matter to me because I am a transactional lawyer, not a litigator. When I did pro bono work in family law I generally was dealing with a pro se resondent on the other side.
I am an Intellectual Property lawyer in the computer industry. I deal primarily with contracts and licenses. Litigation is handled by a separate department or by "outside" counsel.
Please check out my more recent posting on a century ride in April.
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