THE REAL PATRIOTISM

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CONTENTS:
1. Zack Exley: The Real Patriotism
2. Jack Newfield: American Rebels
3. Howard Zinn: My Country: The World
4. Elouise Bell: Matriotism for Mother Earth
5. Farai Chideya: Fighting Our Fathers' Wars
6. Jim Hightower: Wave Our Flag
7. Michelle Chihara: Tough Love
8. Dennis Kucinich: A Prayer for America
9. Write Your Vision for 2020 America
10. About the Bulletin

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THE REAL PATRIOTISM
MoveOn Bulletin Op-Ed
by Zack Exley

Patriotism is love of country. But love comes in many forms: deep, permanent and unconditional, as well as superficial, fleeting and with strings attached. Too often in America, expressions of patriotism seem to flow from our perceived status as "number one" -- number one in terms of military might, wealth, freedom, and democracy. Our leaders remind us in nearly every speech they make that we live in the "greatest, freest, most just nation on Earth." They remind us so often, that one can't help but wonder if they really do believe it. That is a patriotism borne of fear, confusion and insecurity.

What if America wasn't -- or isn't -- number one? Would we still love our country then? Suggest American fallibility, and you may find yourself labeled a traitor. But how, then, are we to find our way to a better America, if this superficial, insecure patriotism prevents us from naming problems that need fixing and traits that need changing?

The solution is to reject false, jingoistic patriotism, and to embrace a patriotism based on the unconditional love of one's country. Note: that's unconditional love, not unconditional approval. Like a parent loves a child, or a child a parent, we love our country because it is OUR country. Period.

Beware: this type of patriotism brings with it much more responsibility than the kind based on superficial, conditional love. Once you accept responsibility for your country in the way that a parent does for a child -- or a child for a parent -- then you're really committed. When your country misbehaves, you can't just roll your eyes as if you had nothing to do with it.

Too many on the left have tried to absolve themselves of responsibility for their country by saying "that's my government, not me." Too many on the right have tried to erase the responsibility governments have to represent all the people by saying, "Love it (read 'agree with me') or leave it!"

Perhaps as old political categories such as left and right lose their relevance, we can aim for a new political unity based on a new kind of patriotism. Let's leave behind the hollow patriotism which is based on disdain for and fear of others. Instead, let's define a new patriotism -- one that expresses our unconditional love for America and lives up to our responsibility to our fellow Americans.

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AMERICAN REBELS
Jack Newfield, The Nation
In his moving anthem to America, Newfield honors a pantheon of rebellious patriots who represent "an alternative conception of this country ... as legitimate and American as burglars of the flag." Progressives are often accused of "hating America" because of their opposition to the war on Iraq and criticism of the Bush administration. However, rebelling against the current tide of conservative conformity does not equate hatred of our country. If anything, it shows our genuine love and passion for the actual principles that America was founded upon.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16262

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MY COUNTRY: THE WORLD
Howard Zinn, TomPaine.com
The people's historian suggests that it's time for Americans to redefine patriotism and seek a different vision for our country, one that values human rights over military prowess. Patriotism, he says, must be expanded "beyond that narrow nationalism which has caused so much death and suffering. If national boundaries should not be obstacles to trade -- we call it globalization -- should they also not be obstacles to compassion and generosity?"
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/7726

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MATRIOTISM FOR MOTHER EARTH
Elouise Bell, Earth Island Journal
When the author explored her complicated feelings about patriotism, she decided the word itself was part of the problem. So she coined a new word: Matriotic. A matriot is one who loves and loyally supports her motherland, her own planet -- Mother Earth. Matriotism is yin to patriotism's yang. It's about the Earth, not the world. It's about what those fortunate few have seen from spaceship portals, not what we see on a map or a globe with regularly updated borderlines and political color-coding.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12918

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FIGHTING OUR FATHERS' WARS
Farai Chideya, AlterNet
Many of us are torn between the false dichotomy of patriotism and intellectual freedom, says the author. This loop of conflicting thoughts forms the dead-end, suburban cul-de-sac of American identity -- I love America; I criticize its methods; I love America; I hate America; I love, I hate, I can't understand. Countries are our parents, telling us who we are and what we can do. If we love our families, yet we question what America has become, where do we go?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15479

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WAVE OUR FLAG
Jim Hightower, AlterNet
Since Sept. 11, the feisty Texas populist has been waving the flag all over the place. Why? "Because it stands for something special, historic, important, and uniting. I'm not waving it as some macho bravado assertion of American Empire, but in the spirit of America Eternal, the land of deep democratic values and ambitions, the place where 'Liberty and Justice for All' is not a throw-away line, but a founding principle that we must struggle daily to try to implement. The U.S. flag represents the flag of the pamphleteers, Sons of Liberty, the abolitionists and suffragists, Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. -- freedom-fighters all."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14020

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TOUGH LOVE
Michelle Chihara, AlterNet
The author, daughter of a Japanese-American interned in the camps during WW II, grew up equating patriotism with constant vigilance. "If we've learned anything from history, it's that during times of crisis we most need to keep watch over our government's actions. Patriotism must always involve passionate and constructive critiques of the U.S. By speaking out against policies or trends I disagree with, I'm trying to hold the U.S. to the highest standards of excellence, to everything that I believe it stands for."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11930

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A PRAYER FOR AMERICA
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
The Ohio congressman's now-famous speech was a clarion call for peaceful patriotism: "Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic traditions. Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society. Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not war as being inevitable."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12477

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GET INVOLVED
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