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Power of Pride

I've always been a patriotic person. Perhaps it's because I was an expatriate from birth, and only recently have I spent more time in the US than I spent outside of it, and have seen the conditions in many countries that helps me recognize the amazing wealth and opportunities we as Americans often take for granted.

Or perhaps it's growing up on an Air Force base that does it, around people who wear the flag on their shoulders, who serve their country, or the culture that exists in such an environment. For example, I thought that every theater in the US, like the base theater, would play the national anthem before every movie.

And I'd get annoyed at baseball games and other events where the national anthem was being played and people wouldn't stand, or talk through it, or wouldn't remove their hats. I was, until 9/11, the most patriotic person I'd find occasion to meet.

Yet, even then I found jingoistic patriotism offensive, particularly what I call the "Christian Conservative" brand of it... For example (no offense to Rus' son Berkeley who apparently loves the song ;-) Lee Greenwood's "I'm Proud to be an American".

In particular, given the erosion of our civil liberties by the Bush administration, people still sing the song, as if they don't even understand the lyrics. The standard of "where at least I know I'm free" sounds like a pretty darn low bar to set for being satisfied with the example our administration is setting with the rest of the world.

Not to mention the premise in every utterance of the disgusting phrase "God Bless the USA"... As if God really favors the USA over any other nation. I've read through the bible, and I missed which verse states that he favors the US over any other nation. Seriously, do people honestly believe that God, in his infinite wisdom and omnipotence, would ordinarily have been thinking He ought to just sit back and let hurricane Katrina, the Chinese earthquake or the great tsunami take place (maybe He has a non-intervention policy when it comes to national disasters and terrorist attacks?), but might actually reconsider if a few of his followers were to solicit his blessing?

I can see it now... God's up in heaven, and hears a prayer: "Well I was going to take the Sunday off to play cosmic golf on Ceti Tau Alpha 7, but Doreen McNamara in Topeka said "God Bless the USA" and now that I think about it, she does have a point..." Holy Infinite wisdom: 0, 100 IQ Doreen: 1.

I tend to lump the folks that are most likely to utter such meaningless phrases into the same pit of fair-weather "patriots" that have no problem displaying tattered American flags on their cars, or those dirtied on their bumper stickers. They let them get torn, dirty and faded, and buy flags that are clearly not all-weather flags, and let them sit on their cars come rain or shine, and let them sit on their cars day and night, when in fact just about any true patriot (or boy scout) can tell you, is against the standard of proper flag decorum.

There's such a "patriot" whose pickup truck I have occasion to walk past every so often who mistreats a US flag by attaching it to his radio antenna. The first flag he destroyed (while not helping his gas mileage out any) got so tattered, well over half of it was missing... Eventually this "patriot" removed the flag.. and replaced it with another one.. as if the new one is going to fare any better than the last one he bought for $0.99 at the dollar store (made in China no doubt).

Pop quiz: True or False-- The preferred way of disposing of a flag is to burn it.
The answer will surprise many "anti-flag burning amendment" people... The proper way to dispose of a flag that is no longer serviceable or presentable is to burn it in a dignified way (no chanting death to America while stomping on it, or burning Uncle Sam in effigy-- just a simple fire pit and slowly stoking the fires to ensure a complete burn which renders the flag unrecognizable is sufficient) just don't do it within sight of the flag desecrating, lee greenwood listening, god-bless-america freaks...

In a similar vein are the bumper stickers I see every so often that say "Power of Pride"... First of all, I thought "pride" was one of those deadly sins the religious conservatives are so careful to avoid. But what exactly is the power of pride? The power of such foolishness to empower a president to invade a nation with false pretense (lest we forget, we needed to depose Saddam because he possessed WMDs)? The pride to live in a country where we repeal FISA? To make a joke of the protections of the Constitution? To repudiate the Geneva conventions? To kick into motion events that led to the killing, murder and rape more Iraqis than Saddam ever did? And to do so with the blood of thousands of true patriotic service men and women on your hands, while you speak of tax cuts, in a time of war while your true patriot veterans are denied benefits?!?? This, dear readers, is not something that we should feel powerful or proud about.

But I digress, because when I think of the word "Pride" I often think of "Gay Pride", so that led to me making my own version of this bumper sticker:

If I was a "bumper sticker" kind of guy, I think it'd be fun to put on my car, just to get some guy sporting a Jesus fish to flip me off while he passes me on the freeway in his gas-guzzling suburban.