Although my grandfather landed on these shores in 1913 and volunteered, shortly thereafter, to fight in WWI, and although I am a US citizen and Ive called this country home for 50+ years, occasionally I am told to go back to where I came from. Why, I ask myself? • Perhaps its because I want to be proud of my country for real reasons not illusionary ones. •Perhaps its because I dont subscribe to the absurd notion of your country, love it or leave it. •Perhaps its because I believe that the unpatriotic position of my country, right or wrong is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. •Perhaps its because while I want to believe, as President Clinton eloquently stated, that there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America, I also believe, as Darrow Clarence pointed out, that true patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. Russell Brand put it so - Why pretend, why be complicit in this ridiculous illusion? Here is something worth contemplating on this Memorial Day - Instead of pretending that all is well in America, as some would have us believe, how about realizing that we are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness and how about working jointly toward creating a more empathetic, compassionate, just, and equitable society that we purport to be?
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 14:11:28 +0000
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