Protesting is as American as it gets. It’s a tradition that
began with the American Revolution.
Protesting is as American as it gets. It’s a tradition that began with the American Revolution. Families were divided between loyalty to the King and the right to protest for freedom without being executed.
God, I love this country – America, the land where even anti-war protesters have the right to demonstrate without fear. We don’t live under military rule, our president does not wear a warrior’s uniform, nor is he armed with a rifle and sidearm.
When my son was in boot camp his instructor said it was a disgrace and a shame how little students today know of their American heritage and what patriotism means. But not in our household.
Growing up in the 1950s, “patriotism” was more than a word – it was a way of life. We didn’t go around waving a flag to prove it either; you just never talked bad about your country. “This is America, buddy, love it or leave it,” my mother would snap at the anti-Vietnam War protesters.
As part of a nationwide demonstration in 1968, anti-war protests were held at the local universities in support of the 500,000 strong who marched to the Capitol.
At 17, “stop the war” was simplistic and idealistic. Of course I wanted peace, but history has proven war is inevitable when all of humanity is at stake.
Like I said, anti-war demonstrations aren’t anything new. During the Civil War, there were many Northerners protesting the North’s intervention and felt that the South should keep their slaves. World War I drew worldwide protests and, yes, they even protested against World War II – among them Charles Lindbergh, who met with Hitler in the late 1930s. Afterward, Lindbergh was quoted as saying Hitler was “a good man.” Now, how wrong was that?
Nevertheless, this type of political pressure kept America out of WW II for two years. Meanwhile, as the anti-war protesters kept pressure on President Roosevelt, Hitler’s evil was building concentration camps. People have pondered that if we had entered the war sooner, it was possible that the Holocaust could have been thwarted.
Perhaps the most damaging blow to American patriotism was the Vietnam War. We were righteous in World War ll; America saved Europe from Hitler’s evil rule. But Vietnam was a black eye for which patriotism suffered.
In our household, it was un-American not to support our troops. Not one war has gone by without someone in our family being on the front lines.
It made me angry when the same protesters marching in Washington, D.C., shouting to bring the boys back home, would then turn around and toss garbage at those same men and women when they did return home from Vietnam.
The pope’s recent visit with Saddam Hussein is, as I expected, like Lindbergh pleading Hitler’s case all over again. The pope believes Hussein is willing to work things out without going to war, but he’s the pope – it’s his job to believe.
Recently, a group of well-meaning protesters gathered to pray for peace, vowing to do so until the crisis is over. It was rather ironic – not one person in the group knew anyone in the armed services. In other words, they had nothing to lose.
My question is, why should we wait to be attacked – again – before getting involved? Do we not have the right to defend ourselves and the rest of humanity?
Pray for peace; it is the only common ground we have. But don’t ask for my support to protest the inevitable when humanity is once again at stake. The ugly truth is, we need soldiers to do what most of us won’t or can’t do.
America was wrong about Vietnam, Lindbergh was wrong about Hitler, but the world is right to fear Saddam Hussein. He is a threat to humanity.
Don’t tell the families whose sons, daughters, fathers, brothers, cousins and uncles are being deployed to the Middle East that their loved one is fighting a worthless cause. Keep it to yourself because it isn’t easy to send your son or brother into battle. We have no choice but to support our family of one.
Americans should never forget how this country became so great, so strong and a world leader: We are committed to democracy and personal freedoms. But mothers and fathers should teach the virtues of patriotism to their children and teach them to be proud Americans.
Still, I can’t help wonder what protesters would think if the families of those serving in the armed forces were to begin our own campaign, protesting protesters. The campaign slogan would be, “Hug a soldier. He or she is protecting your right to walk down the street without a passport and a gas mask.”
My significant other served in the U.S. Marines. When he got out of the corps he took with him the virtue of patriotism, the G.I. bill and this prayer: “My country – may she always be right, but my country, right or wrong.”
