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<font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>Greetings:<br><br>
This is a column that I'm submitting to the <i>Sandpoint Reader</i> for a
celebration of Flag Day. I hope against to get a shorter version
published in the local press. Enjoy.<br><br>
<br>
<div align="center">LIBERALS: TAKE BACK THE FLAG!<br>
By Nick Gier<br><br>
</b>Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion<br>
but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.<br><br>
--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.<br><br>
</div>
<x-tab> </x-tab>It was May
Day, 1967, and I was doing my daily run around the national stadium in
Copenhagen, Denmark, where I was completing my year as a Rotary
Fellow. There were thousands of Danish Communists, Socialists, and
Social Democrats on the expansive lawns celebrating the world’s most
important leftist holiday. <br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Something
struck me about what these people carried in their hands. For every
bottle of beer, some of the best in the world, there were just as many
small Danish flags. As an American I thought: “What a novel idea:
patriots on the left.”<br>
This was not the first time I had noticed and admired Danish
patriotism. At every major occasion--a birthday or a
wedding--little flags are festooned everywhere and a big flag is flying
in the yard. Danish homes, including their summer cottages, are not
complete without a flag pole. <br>
Danish patriotism culminates in a fervent devotion to Queen Margrethe II,
a Cambridge trained archaeologist and accomplished artist, whose
coronation I witnessed in January of 1972 and whom even today I consider
my queen.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Let us
turn to another country. The Sri Lankan flag contains two stripes, green
embracing the Muslims and orange integrating the Hindus, thus validating
their Sinhalese identity in the Country of the Lion (Sinhala).
Buddhist nationalists have removed these colors from their own flag as a
clear warning to Sri Lankan Hindus, Muslims, and Christians that they are
no longer welcome in their own country. For these folks the
upraised sword in the lion’s paw takes on a much more ominous
meaning.<br>
Most Americans could not place Sri Lanka (let alone Idaho) on a map, but
I still fear that some of our own nationalists might get wind of
this. One might instruct his wife to sew a new American flag with
all the Blue State stars removed, even though the Blues pay 71 percent of
the taxes and the Reds, from 1991 to 2001, received $800 billion more in
goods, services, and cash from the feds than they paid in taxes.
During the same decade the Blues paid the feds $1.4 trillion. See
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2 color="#0000FF"><u>John
Sperling's<i> </i>The Great Divide: Retro vs.
Metro</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2>.<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">An even more perverted
possibility actually happened at a recent retreat of the Moscow Chamber
of Commerce. The Chamber head Paul Kimmell has neo-Confederate
tendencies, and he gave
a</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2 color="#0000FF"><u>PowerPoint
presentation</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">on Robert E. Lee in which the
final slide was the Confederate flag (with 14 stars) given equal weight
with the Union flag (with all 33 stars). <br>
The cultural divide is indeed great: In the 2004 election 39 states
gave Kerry 1.5 million more votes than Bush, while 11 states (the heart
of the Confederacy) gave 5 million more votes to Bush. The
neo-Confederates are urging these states to withdraw from the Union and
govern themselves according to strict Calvinist principles and a “whites
first” policy.<br>
Speaking of colors, I just saw for the first time the bumper sticker
“These Colors Do Not Run.” This is message is obviously a corollary
to the slogan “Support Our Troops.” My first thought actually was a
warning that we must not mix good European stock with other blood to make
a rainbow flag! <br>
With only a few bad eggs, I believe that our military is the best in the
world, but a true patriot would insist that we should not put these young
lives in danger unless there is a direct threat to our country, at which
time it would indeed be cowardly for us not to defend ourselves.
But to invade a sovereign nation on the basis of “fixed” intelligence is
bullying not retreating.<br>
Buddhist and American nationalism are of course the exact opposite of
true patriotism, which, like the Danes’ example, is inclusive and
embracing rather than exclusive and dividing. Genuine patriots are
loyal to the principles of their country, not necessarily the
government’s current policies. <br>
As Jim Hightower said recently: “Our democracy was forged in rebellion,
crafted by mavericks and risk-takers who refused to salute authority.
They rejected all autocrats who tried to suppress liberties in the name
of providing security and order.”<br>
American patriots should freely exercise their right to dissent and to
resist the tyranny of a “moral majority.” They should also make
common cause with countries that share the same liberal democratic
principles, and they remain true to the treaties that they’ve made with
them.<br>
Wise patriots would not be afraid to admit their country’s mistakes, and
they would not make exceptionalist and paternalistic claims about
national destiny and obligation. God blesses all nations, not just
ours.<br>
True patriotism is not a narrow nationalism that goes its own way--“you
are either with us or against us”--but one that embraces the UN charter,
international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the
Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners.<br>
Some critics say that the virtue of patriotism is obsolete in our new
world culture. They claim that the nation state is by its nature
dysfunctional, just as destructive as the atomistic self of which the
modern state is a projection. Proclamations such as “Live Free Or
Die” or “Don’t Tread On Me” give lie to the fundamental truth that human
beings are social and relational. <br>
When Martin Buber wrote that “there is no I taken in itself, but only the
I of the primary word I-Thou,” he was rediscovering that Buddhists and
Confucians already knew 2,500 years ago. The diplomatic equivalent
is of course that there is no nation “taken in itself.” The primary
Confucian virtue <i>ren--</i>meaning humaneness or benevolence--is a
character composed of the glyphs person and the number two. Being
truly human is “two peopleness.”<br>
Some say that self-assertive nationalism is a product of patriarchy, and
patriotism should be replaced by, as Elousie Bell calls it, “matriotism”
whose loyalty would be to the largest community possible. As
Virginia Woolf declared: “As a woman, I have no country. As a
woman, my country is the whole world.” Bell and Native Americans
propose that Mother Earth herself become the object of our
devotion. For Native Americans patriotism has meant the destruction
of their lands, their languages, and their cultures.<br>
Daoists celebrate the Dao as feminine and their fellow Confucians promote
a universal fellowship of all nations, but the Confucian Mencius was also
correct in saying that love is, first and foremost, local and
personal. It is only natural that we love those who are closest to
us more than those far away. Confucian love is a graded love that
starts with the family and spreads in concentric circles to the nation
and then to the biosphere around us. Mencius joined Buddhists and
Jains in acknowledging our moral obligations to animals.<br>
Elouise Bell is wise to insist that her matriotism does not necessarily
eliminate a personal love for country and for one’s own land.
Following Mencius, my love for Gaia is necessarily personal and
local. I’ve traveled extensively on four continents but there is
nothing like the mountains, lakes, and rivers of the Pacific Northwest
that I call my home. The Palouse Hills surrounding Moscow have
become an extension of my body.<br>
The liberals that should take back their flag have a long distinguished
tradition that goes back to the American and French revolutions.
Against the divine right of kings and caste society of classical
conservatism, these “classical” liberals have always stood for liberty,
equality, and community (French <i>fraternite</i>) for all. <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>The
American Wiccan community</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
propose that the French <i>fraternite</i> be translated as the virtue of
cooperation. They quote the great classical liberal Ben Franklin:
"If we don't hang together, we shall surely all hang
separately." The Wiccans rightly emphasize that the origins of
democratic and republican ideals are pagan not Christian.<br>
Today’s libertarians put liberty first at the cost of both equality and
community. Conservatives and liberals embrace all three with an
emphasis on community and traditional values for the former and equality
for the latter. Following the Danish example, we should all respect
each other’s love for the classical liberal principles for which this
nation stands “with freedom and justice for all.”<br>
Nick Gier taught philosophy and religion at the University of Idaho for
31 years. For more on classical liberalism see
</font><a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/niger/liberlism.htm" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>www.class.uidaho.edu/niger/liberlism.htm</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
and
</font><a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/305/foundfathers.htm" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/305/foundfathers.htm</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">.
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