American Patriots: Soldiers, Citizens, And Voters

The United States is presently at war in Iraq and Afghanistan where American troops are fighting and dying. At home, cars and homes display solid yellow or red, white, and blue ribbons that call for Americans to “Support Our Troops.” It is patriotic for Americans to support their daughters and sons fighting in a war, but this patriotism does not mean that Americans must blindly support the decision to go to war. Being patriotic means that Americans must do the opposite: they must question their government. Questioning the government, voting, and respecting the rights of others are what makes true patriots in a democratic society; blind following of one’s government creates dictatorships.

The United States government is not perfect, as evidenced by its history. For example, the government sanctioned the institution of slavery, denied women the right to vote for nearly 150 years, and prolonged a war in Vietnam that the government leaders knew they couldn’t win. Fortunately for the United States, in each of those cases, there were patriots that spoke out against what the United States was doing and brought about change. Without the abolitionist movement in the early nineteenth century, slavery may have existed far longer than it had already been allowed. Suffragettes from the late seventeenth century through 1920 gave women political equality – at least on paper. In more recent times, the protests of the 1960s finally led the United States to negotiate a peace long enough to get its troops out of Vietnam.

The above examples illustrate true patriotism. The government was wrong in its official positions, and the people who opposed those positions were right. Had those right-minded people not openly voiced their disapproval of what ...

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...ti-Arab parade, with one man proclaiming, “I’m proud to be an American, and I hate Arabs, and I always have” (Robinson). Well, patriotic Americans are not proud of him. An American patriot understands that in a democratic nation, an entire group is not judged by the actions of a few individuals. If a group were to be judged by a few individuals, then all Caucasian, Christian Americans should be hated because the bombers at the Oklahoma Federal building were white, Christian, American citizens.

The traditional picture of an American patriot is of a soldier in uniform, proudly carrying the American flag and a rifle. But that picture falls seriously short of the true picture of an American patriot. The true picture would show millions of people, of all races and heritage, some carrying protest signs, some handing out campaign literature, and everyone carrying a ballot.