Reflections on Patriotism

Alan Rhodes is a Bellingham resident, an optimistic inhabitant of the political left, and an unabashed patriot.

Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love
Caroline Kennedy, selected and introduced by
Hyperion, 2003
663 pp., hardcover, $27.95
ISBN 0-7868-6918-6

It’s time to take back the flag. Because it flies on SUVs with bumper stickers in support of the Iraq war doesn’t mean it shouldn’t also wave at every anti-war rally. It’s time to reclaim the notion of patriotism. The far right has tried to make patriotism its exclusive franchise, and is quick to label as “un-American” anyone with an opposing viewpoint. The American majority should stop letting the right get away with such vile nonsense.

An inspiring statement of what patriotism is really all about is “A Patriot’s Handbook,” a sizable anthology of “Songs, poems, stories and speeches celebrating the land we love,” edited by Caroline Kennedy. This impressive collection contains over 200 selections and spans over 400 years. Most remarkable is the diversity of the voices: Thomas Jefferson and Jack Kerouac; Theodore Roosevelt and Chief Joseph; Abigail Adams and Fannie Lou Hamer; Francis Scott Key and the Grateful Dead.

One on-line reviewer, with specific references to the Bush administration’s talent for wrapping itself in the flag and demonizing its critics, called the book “a refreshing antidote to modern hysteria.” Publishers Weekly praised it for the “rich and sometimes discordant strains of American self-scrutiny.” In that phrase they have defined the book’s power, as well as the essence of true patriotism—it is often discordant; it is empty if it lacks self-scrutiny.

The writings are grouped under twelve headings, with the opening section titled “The Flag.” Here one finds, of course, “The Pledge of Allegiance” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Also included, however, are portions of two historic Supreme Court decisions. On Flag Day in 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced to recite the pledge. Speaking for the court, Justice Robert Jackson said, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official...can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”

In another historic case in 1989, the Court ruled that burning the American flag is a form of free speech, protected by the First Amendment, with Justice Brennen reminding all that “the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”

The chapter titled “Rule of Law” begins with “The Constitution of the United States,” which I reread for the first time since my college days, over forty years ago. As I read this amazing document, an image kept coming into my mind of Senator Robert Byrd during the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Byrd pled with his fellow senators, horrified that they were preparing to shirk their duty and give the executive branch the power to conduct “preemptive” war at will. Byrd—eloquent and patrician, but shaking with age and torment—reached into his coat and pulled out his pocket-size Constitution to read to his colleagues. I remember thinking at the time, “This is not just a book of rules to this man; it is a living document that he carries next to his heart.”

In this same “Rule of Law” section, along with the Constitution, is an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau’s 1849 call for nonviolent resistance, “Civil Disobedience,” the world-changing essay that was to inspire Gandhi, Caesar Chavez and Martin Luther King. The rule of law is essential to civilization, but Thoreau knew that governments can make mistakes, can do evil, and that when law conflicts with conscience, a true patriot must follow his or her conscience.

I have favorite selections among all of the chapters of “A Patriot’s Handbook.” In the “Equality” section I was energized by Sojourner Truth’s righteous, hell-raising speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” And I got a lump in my throat when I reread Countee Cullen’s 1925 poem “Incident,” in which he recalls being called “nigger” when he was eight years old, and the scar that word left:

I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That’s all that I remember.

Possibly the most powerful section of the book is “War and Peace,” with its many perspectives on the human species’ propensity for self-slaughter. There are the voices of leaders—Lincoln, Wilson, FDR—addressing the nation in time of war, and there are the voices of poets—Stephen Crane, Herman Melville, Bob Dylan—lamenting the carnage. In one selection, General Dwight Eisenhower speaks words of encouragement to the Allied Forces preparing for the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

A few pages later, Eisenhower is a two-term president, delivering his 1961 farewell address to the nation, a speech remembered now for its prophetic warning that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” This moderate Republican and decent man would be, I am certain, horrified were he to return today and see that his worst fears have become reality.

My favorite section is the last in the book, “Our Land,” a tapestry woven from the magnificent American landscape. The perspectives are varied and many: William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Toni Morrison, Annie Proulx, Wallace Stegner, Chuck Berry, Carl Sandburg, Joni Mitchell and scores of others. Included here (how could it not be) is the poem written by Wellesley College professor Katherine Lee Bates on a trip out west in 1893, “America the Beautiful.”

Many people would like to see this song replace the more militaristic “Star-Spangled Banner” as our national anthem, but my own choice for a new anthem would go to the selection on the last page of the book, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.” Kennedy reprints the entire song, including verses that often get omitted:

As I was walking, I saw a sign there,

And on the sign it said “No Trespassing”

But on the other side, it didn’t say nothing;

That side was made for you and me.

This land is your land, this land is my land...

Reading “A Patriot’s Handbook,” one is refreshed, inspired and reminded that, yes, “this land belongs to you and me.” The book is a remarkable affirmation of America: the people, the landscape, our traditions, triumphs, challenges and our potential. We are living in dangerous times and there are dangerous people in high places in our country, people with dark visions of empire or theocracy or both. History will not be kind to them. Ultimately they must fail. They are a minority, overshadowed by patriots who understand the beauty and power in our diversity. You can celebrate that beauty and power in “A Patriot’s Handbook.” §