The Problems with Bandwagon Patriotism

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The Problems with Bandwagon Patriotism

I’ll admit it, I’m American. I’m an American and I admit, I enjoy it very thoroughly. I enjoy having the right to a free education, choice in who rules over me (who rules, who cares? pun intended), and the right to walk around the streets at three a.m. because I can. But I do not consider myself patriotic, in any way, sense or fashion. The astounding number of Americans nowadays who consider themselves patriotic can overwhelm the small few who were there for America before 9/11. But just what can we do about the bandwagon patriotism and its abuse on middle-eastern oriented Americans; it’s manipulation of American’s gullibility for cheap trinkets, and the backing of leaders in a war we don’t belong in. I believe it’s time to instill more peaceful tactics in our country today. It’s time to stop calling ourselves Americans and start calling ourselves humans. So far America has lost more soldiers in Iraq since the war ended than we actually lost in the war itself and people of Middle Eastern decent have suffered more embarrassing attacks than most “average” Americans. Perhaps its time to reconsider the Patriot Act, because truth be told it’s not exactly what our true patriotic forefathers had in mind when they wrote that all men were created equal(despite the fact these men had slaves).

Most Americans that watch CNN or FOXnews can tell you that exactly one month after the attacks on the twin towers, that Congress passes “The Patriot Acts”. But what most Americans can’t tell you is what exactly is inside of these acts. According to the actual document itself, the purpose of The Patriot Acts is:

To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around...

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...ic) descent she gave me perhaps one of the most memorable quotes I felt I could have used in my paper. I’m not sure of the legalities of this, or if I should have gotten a written paper, but she said if I wanted to I could use this quote of hers. We were sitting in Barnes and Nobles, and the topic of stealing came up and how ridiculously easy it would be to steal something. Upon hearing this she said, “ It might be easy for you, but whenever I’m shopping somewhere I almost always feel the workers eyes on me, like I’m F(bleep)ing Osama Bin Laden’s daughter or something”. So what does this say about Bandwagon Patriotism? All it does is give Americans another reason to hate, gives scared Americans another scapegoat to point the finger at. So armed with my solutions I hope you will ask yourself, just when will we stop being Americans, and start being humans?

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