Honor, dishonor and patriotism

I consider myself to be very patriotic. But no one has to take my word for it. Family and friends know how I feel about the United States and can easily provide "references" should anyone want proof. I love the United States. I love studying the history of the United States, particularly early American political and constitutional history and President Abraham Lincoln, which is why I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and why I am currently in graduate school pursuing a Master of Arts degree in American History. I love the American Flag, the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. I love the Statue of Liberty. I really do stand up in my living room and put my hand over my heart when the National Anthem is played on television. 

Given my feelings about the United States and its symbols, one might expect that I would be against taking a knee during the National Anthem. That would be the patriotic response, wouldn't it? After all, taking a knee is disrespectful to the American Flag, the National Anthem, the country and the military, right? Well, many veterans have stated that they served this country to ensure that everyone's rights were protected, whether or not we agree with them. They do not feel disrespected.

Think about the first twenty words in the Pledge of Allegiance "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands". What does "allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands" mean? Merriam-Webster defines allegiance as "devotion or loyalty". Promising to be devoted and/or loyal to the Flag "and the republic for which it stands" means promising to be devoted and/or loyal to the Constitution and the freedoms enshrined in Bill of Rights. The First Amendment guarantees "freedom of speech" which has also been defined as "freedom of expression". Taking a knee is freedom of expression. Taking a knee is saying that "liberty and justice for all", the words which end the Pledge of Allegiance, have not been applied equally to all and we must come together to talk about what we can do to ensure that "liberty and justice for all" really does mean all people.

I cannot profess patriotism, love of country and its symbols, nor devotion or loyalty unless I am willing to defend its Constitution and Bill of Rights. I cannot do that unless I support all who take a knee. That is how I honor the Flag and the National Anthem. That is how I honor the Pledge of Allegiance. That is how I honor all the men and women who served and those who lost their lives, defending our country and the freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights. To refuse to do so would be dishonorable.

Yes, I am still angry about the 2016 presidential election

Nearly ten months after the 2016 presidential election, I am still angry.  Not only am I angry that the most qualified, best prepared candidate lost, but I am still angry with third party voters who could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton.  I am angry with everyone who could not be bothered to vote.  Of course, I am still angry with those who voted for the Republican candidate.  But my anger with them is different than with those who voted third party or did not vote.

This weekend eight hundred thousand people who are DACA recipients do not know whether they will be allowed to remain in the United States or be deported to the country of their birth.  A country they have little, if any, memory of because they have lived in the United States since they were children.  This is their home.  This is their country.  This is their life.  With one signature from the current president, the life they have known will be ripped from them.  They will be sent back to a place they do not know.  For what?  To make America great again?  How could destroying peoples' lives possibly make America great?  Did the lives of the DACA recipients not matter enough to vote to protect them?  Obviously not.

We have already heard the stories of ICE agents tearing families apart as they round up all those "bad hombres", some of whom are not really bad, after all.  So how does this make America great?  How does destroying peoples' lives make America great again?  What has happened and what might happen are not surprising to anyone who understood what the current president said during the 2016 campaign.  He said he would do this.  Did the lives of these people and their families not matter enough to vote to protect them?  Obviously not.

The current president has rolled back protections for women, LGBT people, the environment, and wage-earners while promoting the interests of business and the wealthy.  Did women, LGBT people, the environment and wage-earners not matter enough to vote to protect them?  Obviously not.

The Affordable Care Act has been under attack since it was passed.  The most recent attempt to destroy it failed.  The current president remains undeterred in his quest to destroy the ACA one way or another.  His latest tactic is to cut the advertising budget for ACA open enrollment as well as shorten the enrollment period.   Again, this is not surprising.  One of his campaign promises was to repeal the ACA "on day one."  The ACA is not a perfect system.  But it has provided life-saving insurance for millions who had been uninsured.  Millions of people are able to go to a doctor on a regular basis and afford medications that help them control medical problems that would otherwise kill them.  Did protecting accessibility to healthcare insurance for millions of people not matter enough to vote to protect it?  Obviously not.

The current president has not merely lifted the lid on the simmering undercurrent of racism that has always pervaded the United States, he ripped that lid off and made racist speech and acts acceptable again.  This is not surprising to anyone who understood what he said as candidate during his rallies.  Was working to continue to keep racism from becoming acceptable enough to vote to prevent it?  Obviously not.

So what did matter?  What would have been the one issue that would have mattered enough for people to vote to protect it?  If the answer is that the Democratic party should have picked a different candidate and/or another candidate would have won, then that is poor excuse for all the damage that has been done and will continue to be done by the current administration and the Republican controlled Congress.

Yes, that angers me because it did not have to happen, and yes, I am angry at the people who could have prevented it with a vote and chose not to stop it.

What makes America great?

The current president, during his campaign, used the slogan "make America great again."  Those of us who opposed him knew the slogan was intended to appeal to white voters, especially men, who felt they were losing power and longed for "the good old days".  Katy Tur, MSNBC reporter and host of her own hour-long show on the cable news network, covered the current president's campaign and recently said that some of his supporters talked about the 1950s being a time when America was great.

The United States of America was flawed in its conception.  After having declared independence in a document which stated that "all men are created equal" and "they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", the country not only continued to engage in slavery, but wrote and ratified a constitution which protected slavery.  The constitution also limited citizenship to white men, leaving out women, African Americans who had gained freedom and Native Americans.

With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866,  ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 and ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, African Americans were guaranteed citizenship as well as the right to vote.  Then came the Jim Crow laws which were enacted by white Southerners after returning to power in Southern states.  The laws were designed to severely limit the rights of African Americans and every attempt was made to impeded their right to vote.  Murders and lynching took place on a regular basis.  White supremacy reigned in the South, while many whites in Northern were ambivalent at best.

Although women finally won the right to vote with ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the fight for equal rights continues into the present as does the fight for equality for many groups.  While some white Americans may think the 1950s were a time when America was great, that was not the case for non-whites, women or gays and lesbians.  African Americans were still engaged in fighting for equal rights in 1950s.  That fight continued into the 1960s and while the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made great strides, the fight for equality continues.

So was America ever great?  Is America great now?  Can America ever be great?  The answer is a resounding "yes" because greatness and perfection are not the same!  When the Declaration of Independence was issued, there were people who understood that slavery could no longer exist in a country that declared all men equal.  During the convention in Philadelphia which produced the United States Constitution, there were men who argued that slavery should be abolished. During the 1850s, abolitionists argued forcefully against slavery and Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle' Tom's Cabin which disputed the Southern myth of "happy slaves" and added fuel to the calls to end slavery.  In 1860, when eleven Southern states seceded from the Union to protect slavery, men fought and women served in whatever capacity they could to initially save the Union and ultimately end slavery because President Abraham Lincoln understood that slavery had to end and guided the Union in achieving that outcome.

When the war ended, as African Americans began their fight for equal rights, they did not fight alone.  They were joined by whites who understood that they could not sit back in silence.  When women fought for equality, they did not fight alone.  They were joined by men who understood that they could not sit back in silence.  When gays, lesbians and transgender people fought for equal rights, they were joined by heterosexual men and women who understood that they could not sit back in silence.  When people did not have enough food to eat, people joined together to find ways to help them get food because they understood that they could not sit back in silence.

There are countless numbers of examples of times when people stood up, stood together and spoke out because they understood that they could not sit back in silence.  Each and every time they did is what always has and always will make America great!

Removing Confederate monuments.

Some States have begun the process of removing Confederate statues and monuments.  Other States are still debating and Alabama passed a law to protect Confederate monuments from removal.  One of the arguments for preserving those monuments is that they represent part of history.  After all, there have been countless numbers of statues and monuments erected throughout our country to commemorate a person, a people and/or a significant event.  So what is the problem with the Confederate monuments and why do people want them removed?

Statues and monuments are erected to honor a person, people and/or events or to remember something tragic.  So what's wrong with having Confederate statues and monuments to honor those who fought for the Confederacy?  There is no honor in fighting a war to keep a race enslaved.  There is no honor in fighting a war to destroy a country.  There is no honor in erecting statues and monuments as testaments to white power and white superiority.  There is no honor in erecting statues and monuments as a way to remind a race of people that they are former slaves or the descendants of former slaves and will always be inferior.  There is nothing brave, courageous or righteous about fighting for, shedding blood for or dying for the right to own another human being. 

So what is the history that these statues and monuments represent that deserves to be protected, preserved and honored?  A history of enslaving a race of people.  A history of fighting for the right to own another human being.  A history of fighting to tear apart the world's first democratic form of government.  A history of fighting to say that all people are not created equal?  A history of fighting for white superiority and power.  Is that really a history worth honoring and preserving?

Hillary Clinton's supporters will not be silenced or dismissed

The media has featured various stories about those who voted for the current President.  The focus of the stories tends to be about the fact that those who voted for the current President still support him even though his policies and those of the Republican controlled Congress will likely hurt them.  Once in awhile the media will talk to people who now regret their choice.  But those are few and far between.  The media also focuses on the most progressive members of the Democratic party and have come to the conclusion that not only should Hillary Clinton be silent, but that her own party wants her to be silent.  She no longer has a reason to speak unless she is finally willing to accept complete and total blame for her loss.  After which she must be forever silent.  But Hillary Clinton is not the only one the media as well as those on the right and some on the left want to silence.  They also want to silence those of us who support her.  How many times has the media interviewed or written about Hillary Clinton's supporters?  Maybe a story or two, but other than that, Hillary Clinton's supporters have been dismissed as no longer important, not worth talking to or listening to any more.

Perhaps the lack of media coverage of Hillary Clinton's supporters gives the impression that her supporters have dispersed, are no longer engaged, just do not care any more, have accepted their fate and moved on to other things.  Such suppositions might seem quite right, but are in fact quite wrong.  We are alive and well and very vocal on social media, particularly Twitter.  We care about what is going on our country.  We are angry because we know that much of what is happening could have or would have been prevented by the election of Hillary Clinton.  Oh yes, there is always that specter of the unending investigations and stalled legislation if she had been victorious and the Republicans maintained control of Congress.  But there would not have been executive orders undoing what President Obama had done.  There would not have been families torn apart by ICE agents.  There would not have been a travel ban.  There would not been a withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.  The Republican "repeal and replace" healthcare plan would have been vetoed.  The list goes on and on.

But we are not merely rehashing the election and lamenting what could have been.  We are raising our voices and using social media to speak truth to power.  We are calling out the leaders of the Democratic party who seek to silence us and reminding those leaders that we will not be silenced nor dismissed.  We are not some little group who can be dismissed as unimportant.  We are a big diverse group and we vote.  Yes, we are still with Hillary Clinton.  We are still listening to her because she has the wisdom, knowledge and experience to guide us through these difficult times as one of the Democratic party's leaders.  She was not a weak candidate and the media and others saying that over and over again will never make it true.  Hillary Clinton has withstood an onslaught of lies and rumors that has lasted over thirty years.  She chose Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" as one of her main campaign anthems because that is what she has always done: continue the fight for the voiceless.   She will never be silenced or dismissed and neither will those of us who stand with her.

The American Flag

 In a column published July 6, 1970 and then included in her book, I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression, Erma Bombeck wrote about the American Flag.  She wrote because of something she had seen on television.  A group students and New York construction workers had an altercation and part of it involved the American flag.  The students referred to the American Flag as the construction workers' Flag and symbol.  What struck Erma Bombeck most was the students did not think of the flag as their flag or symbol.
    As a parent, I guess I always thought respect for the flag was congenital. Is it possible I was so busy teaching the basics, I never took the time to teach “flag.”

     She included in her column a few well known quotes along with her own words about what she was saying to her children instead of teaching "flag".

“Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light.…”

(Don’t slouch. Pick up your feet. Don’t talk with food in your mouth. Stop squinting. Turn that radio down. Get off the phone. Tie that shoestring before you trip on it.”)

     She then ended with these words:

Did I forget to tell them it was their flag they hoisted over Mount Suribachi? Their flag that flies over champions at the Olympics? Their flag that draped the coffin of John F. Kennedy? Their flag that was planted in the windless atmosphere of the moon? It’s pride. It’s love. It’s goose bumps. It’s tears. It’s determination. It’s a torch that is passed from one generation to another.

I defy you to look at it and tell me you feel nothing.

On July 4, 2017 I watched the end of the Boston Pops concert.  As they played and sang "You're a Grand Ole Flag" an American Flag unfurled behind the orchestra.  I thought about the Flag, what it means and what is has endured throughout the years.  It is more than just a decorated piece of cloth.  The Flag has been stepped on and burned by people to protest inequality and discrimination and it it has been revered by people who seek to deny equality to and discriminate against others. It has been a source of controversy as people argue over whether pledging allegiance to the Flag is a form of indoctrination or an act of patriotism.  It has draped the coffins of those selfless men and women who served in our military and been derided by those who oppose democracy.  The American Flag is given to new citizens when they take the citizenship oath and the American Flag is waved by nativists who want immigrants to go back to their countries.  It represents the best the United States of America can be and the worst the United States of America can be.  But through it all, just as it did during the battle Francis Scott Key witnessed, the American Flag has endured, just as the the country has and just as the Constitution has.  We can let the conservatives continue to claim the American Flag as their own or we can take it back, wave it proudly, and let it lead us forward as we continue to move toward that "more perfect union".


 

(The link is to the online text of Erma Bombeck's book.  Scroll down toward the end to read Flag)

July 4, 2017

July Fourth has always been one of my favorite holidays.  As a patriotic. flag-waving democrat who loves her country (yes, we Democrats do LOVE our country and our flag) and its history and studies early American political history, early American Constitutional history and President Lincoln, I celebrate the birth of our country and the very beginnings of our republic.  Many people tend to think of the War for Independence in terms of the issue of taxation.  While that is true, that is not the only grievance the colonists had against King George III..  They also listed among their grievances that the King "refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good" and "excited domestic insurrections amongst us."  Once the colonists signed the Declaration and publicly declared independence, they were, of course, guilty of treason for renouncing the authority of the King.  The outcome of the war was not certain.  They faced a Royal military that was well armed and well trained.  If they were defeated, they could very well lose their lives.  As Benjamin Franklin wrote before signing the Declaration of Independence "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." 

Two hundred forty-one years later, we are nation questioning whether our Federal government and whether our Constitution are still strong enough to withstand the events taking place now.  There is an assault of the press from the office of the Presidency.  What are we to do about that?  Can that really happen?  Perhaps the answer can be found in the past, in the attempt by President John Adams to silence the press as well as any opposition to the Adams administration through the Alien and Sedition Acts which made any public negative commentary on the the Federal government illegal.   The Acts also made immigration and naturalization more difficult.  The Acts were enforced during Adams presidency, but effectively ended with the election of Thomas Jefferson.

Are we facing a moment in time when we, like the colonists, must form a new government through revolution?  No, despite how dire the situation may be or even seem to be, our Constitution, will continue to be strong enough to survive. We must remember that the Constitution is a document. a blueprint, for the way government ought to work.  But as we know all too well from our country's history, and from its Civil War, making government work as well as protecting and preserving the Union requires everyone's participation.  Members of Congress must understand that their oath of office to defend the Constitution must take prority over their allegiance to their party.  As Joan Walsh noted during her appearance on the Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on July 3, 2017, the framers of the Constitution never thought members of Congress would not do their job.  Anyone who might doubt Joan's assessment can read the James Madison authored Federalist number 10 in which Madison  wrote "When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens."  When that does not happen, then the voters must use the power they have been given to elect members of Congress who will do what is best for the country.

Two hundred forty-one years ago, a group of men were willing to risk their lives to give birth to our country.  One hundred fifty-six years ago President Abraham Lincoln accepted war to preserve our country, our Constitution and our Federal government.  On July 4, 2017, let us honor those who gave their lives and those who risked everything to create and preserve our country by holding our members of Congress accountable by demanding they protect and defend our Constitution, work together to pass laws which will do the most good for the most people and use our power to vote them out of office if they refuse.