I wasn’t feeling patriotic on Memorial Day. So I asked myself, “What’s wrong with me? Why am I not feeling patriotic on a day set aside to remember the 1.3 million people who have died serving this country in times of war?”
I began my quest for an answer by looking for a definition of patriotism.
“Patriotism,” according to Britannica, “is a feeling of attachment and commitment to a country, or nation.”
“Hmm,” I thought. “I am attached and committed to this country, so why don’t I feel that way?”
I’m puzzled, because when I sing “God bless America, land that I love,” I really mean it when I say that I love this country. So why don’t I feel patriotic?
As I pondered the question, my thoughts segued to my dad. He was born in 1919, was drafted for the Korean War and flew 50 missions as the navigator/bombardier in a B-26. On some bombing runs, which were defended by anti-aircraft guns, he would hear and even feel flak exploding all around him.
My dad hated war. He never put his uniform on after returning home and never marched with the VFW in the Memorial Day Parade. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for “heroism and combat excellence,” but the only two people he showed it to were my mom and me. My dad had done his duty.
As I pondered the question, I remembered reading Interpretations of American History in college which convinced me that Occam’s razor — i.e. the simplest explanation is usually the best — sometimes doesn’t work when trying to get at the truth in history or politics. President Trump has referred to the Iranian state as an “evil empire,” a “very evil place,” and a “nation of terror and hate.”
As much as I am horrified by the actions of Iran’s terrorist proxies in the Middle East, Hamas and Hezbollah, Trump’s simplistic reducing of Iran as a nation of terror and hate gives him permission, according to Time Magazine, to kill 2,100 civilians in bombing runs which were “targeted, surgical operations,” and permission to threaten bombing them back to the Stone Age.
That rhetorical overkill gets in the way of my feeling patriotic.
In her 2024 run for president Nikki Haley declared that the U.S. is not a racist country. It’s a country with some racists. I wish our President would articulate a distinction between an evil nation and evil leaders. His demonizing of a whole society gets in the way of my feeling patriotic.
On Memorial Day, I had to use so much energy redacting Trump’s rhetoric (and statements by his proxies) still active in my brain that I never got to feeling patriotic. Maybe I’m guilty of hanging on too tightly instead of letting it go in one ear and out the other, but that is what happened.
One of the places I ponder troubling questions is my church where I am encouraged to see and hear things from God’s perspective as challenging as that may be. Challenging the populist nationalism expressed in the phrase “America first” are the lyrics to a hymn in Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine …
Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
One of my friends likes to say that her husband is perfect. After pausing for effect she adds, “He’s perfect for me.”
If that’s what it means to feel patriotic, then we don’t need to get defensive if someone accuses us of not being perfect. So, if we define patriotism as love of country, we also need to define love as something we do no matter how we feel.
My wife does love to me even on the days she doesn’t feel it.
My dad had love for his country even though he hated every minute of his service, which involved a Marine, but surely his motto could have been Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful.
Patriotism like love, I decided, isn’t something you feel as much as something you do.
Follow the spiritual adventures of the fictional Pastor Walter Mitty on Tom’s substack https://tomholmes10.substack.com