Jingoism: Whom Do You Serve?

I have lived through two periods of mindless flag waving, and hyper patriotism. Once, back in the seventies, when America (Pardon me, anyone from Canada, Mexico, South or Central America.) celebrated two-hundred years of independence. In those days, it seemed, we had more to be excited about. The vast majority of our population was living a higher standard of living than their parents. Virtually everyone had experienced civics classes, which taught the structure and function of the seven branches of Federal power, the process used to pass Bills into Law, and the system of checks and balances that assured us of freedom from undue government involvement in our lives. Knowing our own history and process made us better citizens. Red, White and Blue has made a comeback, I believe, for all the wrong reasons.

We have had more high-profile instances of economic terrorism in the past two years than I have seen in my entire life. "Free Market" Republicans, (We have not had free markets since the thirties or earlier.) were some of the first to bail out banks and other financial institutions. We serve greedy, inefficient systems that made billionaires out of the best cheats around. When the public realized that their house of cards was based on thin air, which was quickly escaping from the housing bubble, who paid? You and I. The same has been going on with car companies. In nature, it may not be pretty, but when any one thing over uses it's resources, over stays it's welcome or begins to lack flexibility, it's own demise is not far off. Locally, we have had "unions" bargain away 1/3 of their worker's salary, just to "keep companies going" in these tough economic times. It was bad enough when giant corporations used environmental blackmail to stymie meaningful regulation that would partially protect human health, but the mere mention of the possibility of economic change and the cacophony of voices chanting jobs, jobs, jobs, we need those jobs, at least you have a job, we would do anything to keep our jobs, etc. begin to sound like a sixty-thousand bird chicken house!

Our course has been altered. The writing is on the wall. If we are to survive a a country, we need to become less exploitative, less wasteful, less full of ourselves and yes, more integrated into a world of equals as opposed to the way we have seen other people and other countries as "poor", "childlike", "authoritarian" or "developing". Each of these terms comes with a heavy load of baggage and by using them we deny that there is value, insight, culture and history in these places. If we are to regain our position as beacon of hope for the oppressed, a force for Freedom and Liberty or a seed bank for fledgling democracies, then we need to begin to see our system, warts and all and begin to make meaningful changes that assure the rest of the world that we are not just here to pick their pockets, crush them underfoot, or ignore them to death. In our own part of the world we need to get to the heart of our own people, realize that we have the right to live in a country that we can be rightly proud of and take necessary steps to take our country back from corporate dogs that have saddled us with debt. We must rise up and tell the corporados that living the high life at our expense will not be tolerated.

When we all look back over this period, we should see things that we all did to make our country better. We should see the things that brought us together as families, as communities, as human beings, not the results of 9-11 and how it made us more scared, more distrustful, more reactionary on the world stage. Our fearless leader nearly ten years ago told us to shop and travel to "beat" the terrorists. Business as usual has brought us to the brink of collapse in banking and finance, in auto making, construction and housing. When we serve an outmoded structure that made sense in the past, we only reinforce our disconnect with reality. How we approach the future should be based on fact, not allegiance. How we see the past needs to be revised according to Truth, not cloaked in lies. How we live day-to-day needs to reflect our humanity and compassion, not mindless greed and narcissism. I for one, choose to serve others, but only those who appreciate it. The people who are served who think it is their birthright to become corpulent just don't appreciate the sacrifices we all have to make to let them get away with their myopic views and perspectives.

Patriotism based on people I can abide. This culture of greed and deception, and the economic system of rewarding snake oil salesmen has got to stop! Please, treat every dollar as a vote, and give yours to things, and people you can believe in! Stop terror by becoming more humane and for heavens sake, give the flag a rest. Lord and Lady both know, it needs one!