I am a Patriot

As recent as the last editorial might seem, I feel that I must write this new one. I’ve been aware that most inspiration for writing comes from places other than within one for years, and for my two published columns, it mostly springs from having or overhearing conversations, or being told something. This latest comment I heard- and have been hearing for some time now- affected me in a way most others don’t. Most of my inspirations make me angry, so that I write these editorials to both cool off about it and also to learn more about the subject, so if I should engage in some sort of debate about the subject again, I’ll be able to confidently back my opinion with indisputable facts. These columns also are fun to write, and many people around me enjoy reading them, and like to comment on them.
This particular article, however, is deathly serious.
Yesterday, in the latter portion of the school day I heard someone say they wanted to make some statement about why students were required to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance; and why some teachers got angry if one didn’t.
Incidentally, students aren’t required to stand for the Pledge. That’s a common misconception that is indeed caused by certain teachers forcing their students to stand.
However, this person’s comment generated a strong feeling of sorrow within me, indeed to the point where the fury that was aroused with it simultaneously was actually drowned out by it. I was sad, and it is because I weep for my country.
The idea of liberalism has advanced too far. It was once a good thing, a very good thing. A century ago and more, the newly formed left made changes in our society that were doubtlessly and most certainly good ones. They abolished abominations such as child labor, made reforms such as minimum wage, the Food and Drug Act of 1906 (also known as the “Wiley Act”), and passed legislation to prevent monopolies and crooked political machines. Not that conservatives were supporting these things, or that they did nothing to help our country; but it was mostly liberals that seemed to really promote these things and a few others. Liberalism led America in women’s suffrage, as well as the blacks’. These things were all noble causes, and I give a nod of appreciation to what I call the Old Left, which was about advancing the idea that started America: freedom.
But the New Left, whose origins I place in about the 1950’s, is a perversion of what liberalism should have remained as. They take concepts that were once noble and twist them out of their original meanings and contexts, making them into things that most Christians- true Christians- have come to think of as immoral and undignified at best, and at worst- and most often- simply evil. They have taken the idea of equality between the sexes and then flooded our media with women that thinkt of men with only disdain, or women that pursue casual sex “so they can be like men”- refer to the abhorrent TV sitcom Sex and the City. They have driven the case for abortion as far as they could, and continue to do so; dutifully representing the murder of thirty million infants each year.
They have taken the notion of “freedom of religion” and started to dismantle Christianity in both the public and private sectors, treating Christians as lesser citizens and then portraying them all in Hollywood as sideshow scam artists. If you don’t believe me about this one, I encourage you to read David Limbaugh’s Persecution. It is guaranteed to stun Christians everywhere with its well-documented and unfortunately true depiction of the intolerance of Jesus Christ in our country.
They have taken the idea of free speech and used it to endorse the dissemination of such detestable practices like pornography and direct attacks on religion. The Democratic National Endowment of the Arts has long supported works of “art” which are unabashedly heralded as thinly veiled pornographic material- and it is encouraged! It’s not nearly as encouraged as attacks on Christianity, however- exhibits such as Piss Christ, a crucifix submerged in the “artist’s” urine; and The Holy Virgin Mary, a silhouette of a woman surrounded by pictures of female genitalia and covered with elephant dung; are supposed to be “works of art” that the NEA was pressing to have funded by public money, so it could be displayed in New York museums. It was insisted that such repugnant things were protected by the First Amendment, even when it so clearly offended any person who could rightfully call himself a Christian- and even people who weren’t. Well, maybe these abominations are indeed protected by the Bill of Rights, but that doesn’t mean that the taxpayer’s money needs to be spent on something that many of the taxpayers would find patently offensive. We conservatives aren’t trying to smother their rights and censor their views or pieces of “art”, but we could think of better uses of government money than offending Christians. Just use your own money, liberals.
Isn’t it ironic how when one student is offended by a prayer over a loudspeaker at a high-school football game, liberals will take the school to court and then mandate that the school must allow no more praying, but when a whole city- indeed, over half of the country- is deeply affronted and insulted by what are clearly attacks on their religion, liberals will say that it is merely an expression of free speech? Isn’t a student praying, or a student making references to Jesus Christ in a valedictorian speech (which was also suppressed) also protected by the freedom of speech? Liberals have taken the idea of free speech and used it as a club against majorities. They use it to suppress the rights of many to keep from offending a few, as in the school prayer cases or the argument against the “Moment of Silence,” which was notably overwhelmed in the last of The Right Side’s articles.
The last point, which was the main one of this article, is that they use the Freedom of speech to blatantly traitorous ends. High-school Democrats insist that they don’t need to say the Pledge of Allegiance and stand for its recitation if they don’t want to, even if they end up doing it in the end. Can anyone think of any more grateful way to thank the country that allows such views than to refuse to at least stand in honor of its flag? I, like my family, friends, and church, love my country. Maybe because my dad was in the Navy, or I went to military school where they try to instill a strong sense of patriotism in one. But, mostly I love America because of what it believes. The Founding Fathers of this country believed in a God, a Holy Creator, that had mandated them with creating a great nation in which everyone was equal, where there was a freedom to worship this God or any other in any way the person chose, where a person could do pretty much whatever he wanted with his life as long as it didn’t interfere with the rights of others’. They wanted a country unlike any other before it, where all were truly free to the best of man’s abilities. Even when that freedom of ideas would lead to such things as Nazis parading down Manhattan when they want, or abortion on demand, or students refusing to stand in honor of their nation’s flag. The Founding Fathers still pursued a dream worth pursuing; believing that the positive sides to such an idea would far outweigh the bad ones. And they do. Because of America, not only Americans can go to whatever church they want, but since many countries around the world have followed our example, thousands and millions of people can. America is the greatest country in the world, folks, in every way, shape, and form. It has been the leader in freedom for over two hundred years. I can worship freely, write my two Internet columns, and argue my case in school- even if I’m the only one doing so. Because I’m an American. Those kids who won’t stand for the Pledge, the only reason they can do so is because they live in a free country. It’s very sad, and sometimes infuriating, that they refuse to act with any gratitude towards the very thing, the very idea that allows them to refuse. And why? Why not merely stand up for two seconds to honor the country that allows them every freedom that they will ever use? To stand out from their peers, maybe? I’m not sure. If that’s the case, it’s one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever heard of. Individualism at the sake of the patriotism that allows this individualism is not worth it. It is not only ungrateful, it is bordering on traitorous.
To those Americans who have read this article, I beg of you: love this country. You live in the greatest, most unique country in the past century or so. This is a nation where even most of its poorest citizens still have televisions, phones, electricity, running water, refrigeration… This is a nation where anything is allowed to be said, anything is allowed to go into print, any idea can be passed up into government and incorporated into our country. This is the country where any American can become the leader of the country, or become a multi-millionaire if they applied themselves. This is the nation that anyone can worship his God freely and without worry of being killed for it, where the individual is the main, driving purpose for the government. This is the greatest country in the world.
For the record, I am a patriot.