My Country 'Tis of Thee

Sitting here on a steamy July 4th morning, I'm well aware that patriotic fervor will parade through the streets of America today, then explode into fireworks as the sun sets from sea to shining sea.

Yet, at this moment, I can't imagine singing "America" without breaking into tears.  Love is like that.  It breaks your heart.

It I were to try to describe my relationship to the United States of America, the first thought is "it's complicated."   Yet, that's too easy.

When I hold that question close to my heart, marriage vows come to mind.  At age 73, it's pretty clear that, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, my fate is sealed.  I ain't going anywhere.  It is "'til death do us part."

Yet, this doesn't mean I accept the blind patriotism that has been hurled, often quite angrily, at me over the years in various settings as I've cajoled, marched, and rallied in the cause of peace.  Encountering faces contorted by fear, enmity, and deep, un-examined prejudice, hasn't been easy.  It's obvious that they are having a hell of a time of it.  My heart goes out to them.  With all due respect, I don't think they get it.

I'd wager that many of those who claim "my country right or wrong," is their bottom line never read past the semi-colon in the original quote.  A German immigrant, public servant, and journalist, Carl Shurz spoke these words on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1872:

"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."

Then...

American was a different place when I was growing up. 

After capitalism hurled itself over the edge in 1929, a new consensus had been formed.  The post-war WW2 Republican Party, still imbued with a sense of common decency, accepted that the government had a crucial role in establishing justice and promoting the general welfare.  President Eisenhower, a Republican, labeled those who opposed the New Deal as "stupid" in 1952, and later put the power of the Federal troops behind the Supreme Court decision that segregation laws were unconstitutional.  He also coined the term "military-industrial complex" and warned of it having undo influence as he left office.  A couple of decades later another Republican President, Richard Nixon, signed landmark environmental legislation and Medicare into law, famously claiming, "we are all Keynesians now."

Even though we had to hit the streets during the civil rights, anti-war movements, and environmental movements of the 1960's and 1970's to push things along, there was a sense that the course of human history was basically progressive.  It seemed that we, as a people, were basically decent.  Although there was resistance, at times violent, from the fringes of society, it seemed we the people were in the process of increasingly "setting it right."

And Now...

After several decades of well-financed and pervasive organizing throughout all the major institutions in society, viewpoints that were once considered aberrant are now mainstream.

A mean-spirited and arrogant cadre of talk show hosts, print pundits, and media personalities led the way.  Some of them drifted directly into public office.

Over time, attitudes and behaviors that were decidedly uncool when I was growing up, seized center stage.  They then shouted down those accustomed to civil discourse and statesmanship.

And now, after the continual erosion of common decency, we have a bully in the presidential pulpit mocking those who oppose him -- and threatening those who challenge him with violence.  On his watch we've seen what was once unimaginable become commonplace.

So, today, I'll allow myself to grieve.

Tomorrow, I'll roll up my sleeves and continue to do what I can do about setting it right.