<CENTER>What It Means to Be an American Patriot</CENTER>
<CENTER>By Gary Palmer</CENTER>
Posted on: July 8, 2007
Over the Independence Day holiday, my family and I watched the movie The Patriot starring Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin, a South Carolina militia colonel. While there are certain historical inaccuracies in the movie, including the misrepresentation of the brutal incineration of women and children, the film is worth watching. There is one line in particular that I missed in my previous viewings of the movie. After Gen. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown and it was apparent America had gained her freedom, Col. Martin wrote to his children, “My hope, my prayer, is that the sacrifices borne by so many will spawn and fulfill the promise of our new nation.”
While Col. Martin is a fictitious character, his words ring as true as those of any of our Founding Fathers. These movie lines echo Lincoln’s admonition at Gettysburg that those who followed would not squander the sacrifices of those who “… gave the last full measure of devotion.”
Not surprisingly, the vast majority of Americans consider themselves to be patriotic and do respect and honor the sacrifices of the men and women who have given their lives for our republic. In fact, a January 2007 Princeton Survey Research Associates/Pew poll found that 90 percent of Americans consider themselves “completely or mostly” patriotic.
This raises the question: What does it really mean to be patriotic in America today?
Patriotism as our Founding Fathers understood it was not pride in the land in a nationalistic sense. The foundation of American patriotism rests firmly on our ideals. It is what we believe about the relationship between people and their government that makes America different from the citizens of other nations. Upholding the ideals that our Founders set forth in the Declaration and protected in our Constitution means that we as citizens have a responsibility to hold our elected and appointed officials accountable to the Declaration and Constitution.
By this standard, patriotism could be better measured by our understanding of core founding principles and our willingness to defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including those who hold elected or appointed office, whether they are Democrats or Republicans. This requires a different kind of patriotism in that it also requires citizens to be educated and engaged.
Patriotism must be based on a love for the ideals and principles upon which America was founded. The essence of America is that we are a nation of ideals, of free people and free markets, of people committed to the idea that we are all created equal with unalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator.
Moreover, America was founded on the ideal that the only legitimate role of government is to protect those rights within the limited powers granted to it by the people. In this regard, we are different from any other nation in the history of the world. Consequently, our view of what it means to be a patriot is different that any other nation in the world.
On January 11, 1989, in his farewell address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan said that one of the things he was most proud of as a result of his eight years as president was the resurgence of national pride; he called it the new patriotism. Reagan warned that the new patriotism would not last “… unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge. An informed patriotism is what we want.”
Our nation needs a patriotism that calls each generation to do its part to guarantee, as Lincoln said at Gettysburg, “ … that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” To ensure this will require a renewed commitment to teach our citizens America’s history, core principles and what it means to be an American patriot. Only then can we fulfill the promise of this nation and make certain that those who gave their lives for our liberty “… shall not have died in vain.”
<CENTER>By Gary Palmer</CENTER>
Posted on: July 8, 2007
Over the Independence Day holiday, my family and I watched the movie The Patriot starring Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin, a South Carolina militia colonel. While there are certain historical inaccuracies in the movie, including the misrepresentation of the brutal incineration of women and children, the film is worth watching. There is one line in particular that I missed in my previous viewings of the movie. After Gen. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown and it was apparent America had gained her freedom, Col. Martin wrote to his children, “My hope, my prayer, is that the sacrifices borne by so many will spawn and fulfill the promise of our new nation.”
While Col. Martin is a fictitious character, his words ring as true as those of any of our Founding Fathers. These movie lines echo Lincoln’s admonition at Gettysburg that those who followed would not squander the sacrifices of those who “… gave the last full measure of devotion.”
Not surprisingly, the vast majority of Americans consider themselves to be patriotic and do respect and honor the sacrifices of the men and women who have given their lives for our republic. In fact, a January 2007 Princeton Survey Research Associates/Pew poll found that 90 percent of Americans consider themselves “completely or mostly” patriotic.
This raises the question: What does it really mean to be patriotic in America today?
Patriotism as our Founding Fathers understood it was not pride in the land in a nationalistic sense. The foundation of American patriotism rests firmly on our ideals. It is what we believe about the relationship between people and their government that makes America different from the citizens of other nations. Upholding the ideals that our Founders set forth in the Declaration and protected in our Constitution means that we as citizens have a responsibility to hold our elected and appointed officials accountable to the Declaration and Constitution.
By this standard, patriotism could be better measured by our understanding of core founding principles and our willingness to defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including those who hold elected or appointed office, whether they are Democrats or Republicans. This requires a different kind of patriotism in that it also requires citizens to be educated and engaged.
Patriotism must be based on a love for the ideals and principles upon which America was founded. The essence of America is that we are a nation of ideals, of free people and free markets, of people committed to the idea that we are all created equal with unalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator.
Moreover, America was founded on the ideal that the only legitimate role of government is to protect those rights within the limited powers granted to it by the people. In this regard, we are different from any other nation in the history of the world. Consequently, our view of what it means to be a patriot is different that any other nation in the world.
On January 11, 1989, in his farewell address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan said that one of the things he was most proud of as a result of his eight years as president was the resurgence of national pride; he called it the new patriotism. Reagan warned that the new patriotism would not last “… unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge. An informed patriotism is what we want.”
Our nation needs a patriotism that calls each generation to do its part to guarantee, as Lincoln said at Gettysburg, “ … that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” To ensure this will require a renewed commitment to teach our citizens America’s history, core principles and what it means to be an American patriot. Only then can we fulfill the promise of this nation and make certain that those who gave their lives for our liberty “… shall not have died in vain.”
