[Vision2020] A "Peace" of Grass---featuring a GI in Iraq

[Chasuk]

On 5/31/06, Matt Decker <mattd2107 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Curiousty speaking, am I also a cheesy dude for having a flag flown
> everyday? Let alone my cheesy magnet stuck to my truck, and a Marine
> sticker? Wouldn't any sticker stuck to a car be cheesy in your mind?

>From my perspective, you are a cheesy dude.  My mother-in-law has a
similar magnet stuck to her vehicle, and she actually knitted
(crocheted?)  some cheesy patriotic doohickey, but I love her
regardless.  You might be a nice guy, but I can almost guarantee that
I would find your politics cloyingly naive.

I'm glad to be a USian, probably as much as (or more than) you are
glad to be a USian.  However, I'm not proud to be a USian, and therein
lies the difference between us.  I abhor any suggestion that that I,
or anyone, is somehow "Un-American" by failing to wallow in
conspicuous displays of patriotism.  The very word "Un-American" is
ugly and xenophobic.  Belgians don't refer to less patriotic Belgians
as "Un-Belgian."  That particular, hideous construction is purely
Usian.

Über-patriots, to me, are the same as any other type of zealot.  They
might differ by degree, but they are still scary folks.  Fred Phelps
is a zealot.  Hitler was a zealot.  Grand Inquisitors were zealots.
The 9/11 bombers were zealots.  Sinn Féin are zealots.  They all scare
me.