what is happening right now?? I am immune to this stuff!\u00a0Ice in my veins, baby.\u00a0<\/em>Because i do not\u00a0believe in blindly emotional nationalism\u2013 and also I DO NOT CRY. Nope. Not that girl.<\/p>\nSo I did a quick gut-check to determine why I was feeling so positively\u2026 PATRIOTIC\u2026 I\u2019m guessing it was some combination of:<\/p>\n
-The overwhelming beauty and amazingness of nearly 100 First Graders singing the Star Spangled Banner, knowing every word and nailing every high note. And the wonder of what a good music teacher can do with such young children. God bless America, indeed, and our (mostly) commitment to free public education for one and all. If that is patriotism, sign me up.<\/p>\n
-The old guy in the Navy Seals hat\u2013a little misty-eyed himself\u2013 standing up to salute the flag and wave to his grandkids on stage. I can\u2019t even. He\u2026now HE is allowed to talk to me about sacrifice, and service, and values.\u00a0NOT THE BLOW HARDS\u00a0ON FOX NEWS OR THE CBN.\u00a0But this guy, for sure.<\/p>\n
-Thinking of\u00a0my great uncles who died mysterious deaths in far-away places; and my grandparents and great grandparents\u2013and so many others\u2013who got word through a cold hard telegram, and carried the weight it\u00a0their whole lives long.<\/p>\n
-Thinking of my friend who is about to have a baby, while her husband is stationed at Guantanamo. And thinking of all the families like them who are preparing for Thanksgiving apart. Again. #gratitude<\/p>\n
-And, gratitude for my military chaplain friends who fight the good fight for interfaith discourse and LGBT inclusion in service\u2013in spite of hard wired ideology that is not always open\u00a0to their voices.<\/p>\n
-The oft-unseen role of our military \u2013to land in\u00a0regions torn by natural disaster, famine or pandemic and bring\u00a0aid. \u00a0While we see mostly war and battle in the news, they wade into the ashes, the rubble, the aftermath of chaos and deliver, in person, the goodwill of the free world.<\/p>\n
-The diversity of faces\u2013both in the children onstage and in the standing veterans in the audience. Our neighborhood is not quite as white-washed as one would think the Kansas suburbs would be. I saw a sea of black and white, Asian and hispanic and Indian\u2026<\/p>\n
And or me\u2013for many of us\u2013THAT is America. The great melting pot of culture and race; the song of we were all strangers once<\/em>, and tell us your story<\/em>, and \u201cBring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free\u2026\u201d That\u2019s the flag I will salute proudly, the anthem I will sing by heart every time I hear the opening strains.<\/p>\nWhich is why, I guess, I also had some\u00a0tears of grief. Regret.\u00a0And concern for the America my kids might inherit. The one where:<\/p>\n
-Veterans are honored verbally, but come home to little opportunity for work, and little support for the wounds they sustained\u2013physical and otherwise\u2013in service.<\/p>\n
-Where public education is valued, in theory, but defunded by politicians who have been bought and paid for by corporations,\u00a0with\u00a0other, presumably sinister purposes for our tax dollars.<\/p>\n
-Where healthcare is becoming a privilege for the privileged few\u2013and the people making that so are proud of it.<\/p>\n
-Where public assistance is granted with increasing hostility and decreasing effectiveness; and those who do receive it are demonized for their own need.<\/p>\n
-Where we boast some of the most stunningly beautiful landscape on the planet, but people with an alarming amount of power\u00a0continue to deny that our consumptive habits are destroying the very air we breathe, not to mention the pretty stuff we look at.<\/p>\n
-Where a narrative of scarcity and fear of other wins elections, big time. And hateful bigotry passes for faith and freedom, and that, too, sells big.<\/p>\n
-Where guns are gods, and unbridled access to them\u00a0is not up for discussion, ever.<\/p>\n
-Where the teaching and preaching of peace has been effectively marketed as anti-America, and anti-military.<\/p>\n
-Where nationalism and entitlement pass for the literal, actual gospel of Jesus Christ, and anybody who isn\u2019t from\u00a0here must be a dang terrorist.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the America that I feel like is running for President right now. And while I do not believe in living fearfully, I do struggle with great concern that so many people choose the fearful and exclusive god\/country\/story, over the beautiful and peaceable one that I glimpsed today.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In honor of Veteran\u2019s Day I will say, without irony\u2013May God bless America. May God bless us to be generous with our abundance and our borders; to do well by our children, protecting their air and water from the backwash of our grievous excesses, and to invest in their education rather than their prison cell. May God bless the men and women who serve us\u2013while they serve, and after they come home. May God bless the vision of hope and freedom that brought us here, and\u00a0teach us to honor that dream without having to kill the rest of the world. Amen.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, if you\u2019d like to celebrate Veteran\u2019s Day\u00a0in hope for the America that is becoming, rather than regret for the one we haven\u2019t achieved yet\u00a0\u2013I suggest you find some grade school kids and ask them to tell you about America. Or better yet, have them sing it to you.<\/p>\n
So call me a liberal, I guess. But when someone says \u2018liberal\u2019 in a clearly disparaging way, I hear only \u201cone who values liberty.\u201d And tell me to love it or leave it. I will tell you, without hesitation, that I love it. I love it for what it is, and what it has been; but I love even more what it might be. If we would all just remember where we came from.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We rail against gun culture, the gross injustice of capitalism, and the disintegrating lines between church and state. Some may say, for these reasons and others, that we hate America. But I\u2019ve got a secret for you: I\u2019m going to whisper it so I don\u2019t have to turn in my lefty hippie commie card\u2026 Liberals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":3981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,1091],"tags":[296,1140,1141,792,308,309,9,1139],"class_list":["post-3980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-being-a-person","category-good-news-for-progressives","tag-america","tag-military","tag-military-chaplaincy","tag-military-families","tag-patriotism","tag-politics","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-veterans-day"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Some may say, for these reasons and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/11\/liberals-love-america-too\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irreverin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-11T20:34:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-11T20:38:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/333\/2015\/11\/firecracker-801902_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"426\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erin Wathen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Wathen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/11\/liberals-love-america-too\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/11\/liberals-love-america-too\/\",\"name\":\"Liberals Love America Too\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-11T20:34:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-11T20:38:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#\/schema\/person\/d952aeacf2fb5d80629d6718167a6013\"},\"description\":\"We rail against gun culture, the gross injustice of capitalism, and the disintegrating lines between church and state. 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