Isn’t Life Strange?

I like quotations.  Over the past several years I have found it enjoyable to read notable sayings and important phrases spoken or written by people throughout our history.  Quotes can be very powerful tools to help form our opinions or support our arguments.  I think of quotations as little words of wisdom and sometimes humor, and windows through which we can look into the past. 

We like to think that words we read attributed to others are in fact authentic.  But sometimes words are credited to those who never said them.  Several chain email letters attributed to Robin Williams, Andy Rooney, and George Carlin come to mind.  We should always question the authenticity of such things until we know the truth behind them. 

I was walking through the parking lot of the grocery store this morning and a bumper sticker grabbed my attention. It had the following quotation on it:

"Dissent Is the Highest Form of Patriotism" — Thomas Jefferson

I thought this was a little odd, that a founding father could actually be advocating dissent, especially when the de-facto motto of the nation at the time of Jefferson was "E Pluribus Unum", or in English, "Out of Many, One".  Though I am no historical scholar, I hardly believe that even the founding fathers thought it healthy for the nation to be mired in a constant pattern of dissenting views.  Debate, yes.  Dissent, no.

I did a web search for the phrase and the name of our third President and As it turns out, Thomas Jefferson never said such a thing.  Someone obviously said it once and in order to give it credibility, attributed it to one of our nation’s most honored historical figures.  Such things are deceitful at best, and potentially dangerous when used by activist groups to advance an agenda.

That statement in particular and those like it have been used to back the far left’s view on patriotism, which is difficult to understand. 

Patriotism is not defined by dissent, disagreement, or contempt.  It is not defined by how much you wave the flag or how often you display it, or conversely, how much you fight for your right to defile that flag or involve yourself in protests.  Patriotism has nothing to do with your position on the war, the President of the United States, your elected representatives, or anything involving our federal or local governments.

Patriotism is not something you can learn, or a behavior that is conditioned over time. Patriotism is indeed inspired by a love and respect for your country, not blindly approving in the actions of government, but having a feeling of pride in the great institutions, history, and traditions that have shaped our nation and made America the world’s best hope for freedom and liberty.  It is an appreciation and understanding of why we’re free, how we won that freedom, and the price that has been paid to protect and nurture it throughout our history. 

It is indeed healthy and important that we do question the actions and decisions made by our government.  After all, the government exists to serve us.  Debate and disagreement is part of life here in America.  We cannot blindly follow the whims and plans of those who have attained positions of power without knowing how those decisions will impact our lives and the course of our great nation.  It is also important to realize that perhaps the best exercise of our love for our nation is to get involved in the process of selecting those who serve us, by taking note of the positions and the qualifications of those who seek office, and ultimately by affirming our choice at the ballot box. 

The real danger facing America is the movement to redefine the traditions and the truths we have known for generations.  It is now considered controversial for schoolchildren to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  Children in our public schools are forced to learn a revisionist view of history, often telling only one side of the story that effectively paints much of our past in a negative light.  And recently, many on the left seek to blame America first for the world’s problems, citing our wealth and influence around the world as the source of all evil.  When asked difficult questions about those positions, a typical response is "Don’t question my patriotism."  It is no wonder that we are having discussions over what defines patriotism at this time and why one of the two remaining candidates for President decided it was necessary to make a major speech about the subject. 

If the definition of patriotism is whatever we want it to mean, then it simply becomes an empty word.  We don’t need to wave flags to be patriotic, or support every or any government decision, but we do need to feel some pride in our nation in order to be patriotic. 

One bumper sticker seen today has me thinking how fortunate we are to live in a country so free that we can be having this discussion at all.  We must all be vigilant to continue fighting for those freedoms and take great care that we do not sacrifice any of them for any amount of security or further government intrusion into our lives.  But it is also imperative that we do not allow ourselves to be fooled by those who use falsely attributed words to change our understanding of how and why our nation exists.