One Political Plaza - Home of politics
Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register
Main
The True Meaning of Patriotism
Page <<first <prev 3 of 4 next>
Jan 23, 2020 15:09:22   #
dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA
 
Weasel wrote:
Confucius Say
Reverse Psychology and Aggravation are tools best used by those who intentionally offer no opinion
They are only here to fan flames.


You just described half of the people on OPP!

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 15:16:29   #
Lt. Rob Polans ret.
 
slatten49 wrote:
“It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”

Lawrence W. Reed

Patriotism these days is like Christmas—lots of people caught up in a festive atmosphere replete with lights and spectacles. We hear reminders about “the true meaning” of Christmas—and we may even mutter a few guilt-ridden words to that effect ourselves—but each of us spends more time and thought in parties, gift-giving, and the other paraphernalia of a secularized holiday than we do deepening our devotion to the true meaning.

So it is with patriotism, especially on Memorial Day in May, F**g Day in June, and Independence Day in July. Walk down Main Street America and ask one citizen after another what patriotism means and with few exceptions, you’ll get a passel of the most self-righteous but superficial and often dead-wrong answers. America’s Founders, the men and women who gave us reason to be patriotic in the first place, would think we’ve lost our way if they could see us now.

Since the infamous attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans in near unanimity have been “feeling” patriotic. For most, that sadly suffices to make one a solid patriot. But if I’m right, it’s time for Americans to take a refresher course.

Patriotism is not love of country, if by “country” you mean scenery—amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesty, and the like. Almost every country has pretty collections of rocks, water, and stuff that people grow and eat. If that’s what patriotism is all about, then Americans have precious little for which we can claim any special or unique love. And surely, patriotism cannot mean giving one’s life for a river or a mountain range.

Patriotism is not blind trust in anything our leaders tell us or do. That just replaces some lofty concepts with mindless goose-stepping.

Patriotism is not simply showing up to v**e. You need to know a lot more about what motivates a v**er before you judge his patriotism. He might be casting a b****t because he just wants something at someone else’s expense. Maybe he doesn’t much care where the politician he’s hiring gets it. Remember Dr. Johnson’s wisdom: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Waving the f**g can be an outward sign of patriotism, but let’s not cheapen the term by ever suggesting that it’s anything more than a sign. And while it’s always fitting to mourn those who lost their lives simply because they resided on American soil, that too does not define patriotism.

People in every country and in all times have expressed feelings of something we flippantly call “patriotism,” but that just begs the question. What is this thing, anyway? Can it be so cheap and meaningless that a few gestures and feelings make you patriotic?

Not in my book.

I subscribe to a patriotism rooted in ideas that in turn gave birth to a country, but it’s the ideas that I think of when I’m feeling patriotic. I’m a patriotic American because I revere the ideas that motivated the Founders and compelled them, in many instances, to put their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor on the line
.
What ideas? Read the Declaration of Independence again. Or, if you’re like most Americans these days, read it for the very first time. It’s all there. All men are created equal. They are endowed not by government but by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Premier among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Government must be limited to protecting the peace and preserving our liberties, and doing so through the consent of the governed. It’s the right of a free people to rid themselves of a government that becomes destructive of those ends, as our Founders did in a supreme act of courage and defiance more than two hundred years ago.

Call it freedom. Call it liberty. Call it wh**ever you want, but it’s the bedrock on which this nation was founded and from which we stray at our peril. It’s what has defined us as Americans. It’s what almost everyone who has ever lived on this planet has yearned for. It makes life worth living, which means it’s worth fighting and dying for.

An American Spin

I know that this concept of patriotism puts an American spin on the term. But I don’t know how to be patriotic for Uganda or Paraguay. I hope the Ugandans and Paraguayans have lofty ideals they celebrate when they feel patriotic, but whether or not they do is a question you’ll have to ask them. I can only tell you what patriotism means to me as an American.

I understand that America has often fallen short of the superlative ideas expressed in the Declaration. That hasn’t diminished my reverence for them, nor has it dimmed my hope that future generations of Americans will be re-inspired by them.

This brand of patriotism, in fact, gets me through the roughest and most cynical of times. My patriotism is never affected by any politician’s failures, or any shortcoming of some government policy, or any slump in the economy or stock market. I never cease to get that “rush” that comes from watching Old Glory flapping in the breeze, no matter how far today’s generations have departed from the original meaning of those stars and stripes. No outcome of any e******n, no matter how adverse, makes me feel any less dev**ed to the ideals our Founders put to pen in 1776. Indeed, as life’s experiences mount, the wisdom of what giants like Jefferson and Madison bestowed on us becomes ever more apparent to me. I get more fired up than ever to help others come to appreciate the same things.

During a recent visit to the land of my ancestors, Scotland, I came across a few very old words that gave me pause. Though they preceded our Declaration of Independence by 456 years, and come from three thousand miles away, I can hardly think of anything ever written here that more powerfully stirs in me the patriotism I’ve defined above. In 1320, in an effort to explain why they had spent the previous 30 years in bloody battle to expel the invading English, Scottish leaders ended their Declaration of Arbroath with this line: “It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”

Freedom—understanding it, living it, teaching it, and supporting those who are educating others about its principles. That, my fellow Americans, is what patriotism should mean to each of us today.
“It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fi... (show quote)


Terrific, I think you nailed it. To me love of country is love of the people in it, not the scenery.

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 15:18:38   #
Lt. Rob Polans ret.
 
Hug wrote:
Wrong, The Democrat Party has been hijacked by the l*****t (C*******t) and they do not see themselves as patriots. They see themselves as Socialist and if they should win the country will be turned into a Socialist/C*******t country. They will finish what Obama started. There is nothing patriotic about a Socialist dictatorship.


And Mayor Pete is a Marxist Professor

Reply
 
 
Jan 23, 2020 15:19:55   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
Weasel wrote:
Confucius Say
Reverse Psychology and Aggravation are tools best used by those who intentionally offer no opinion
They are only here to fan flames.



Reply
Jan 23, 2020 15:22:34   #
slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
 
Weasel wrote:
Confucius Say
Reverse Psychology and Aggravation are tools best used by those who intentionally offer no opinion
They are only here to fan flames.

An inability to comprehend the written word leads to not understanding that re-posting another's thoughts and/or opinion(s) as a reply simply & clearly means that one is in agreement with the original poster. In other words, gentlemen, I agreed with DTucker300's posted/quoted opinion and often do.

I shall now assume that both you and Nwtk read no opinion in my OP. Sad.

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 16:32:00   #
woodguru
 
slatten49 wrote:

Since the infamous attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans in near unanimity have been “feeling” patriotic. For most, that sadly suffices to make one a solid patriot. But if I’m right, it’s time for Americans to take a refresher course.

Patriotism is not blind trust in anything our leaders tell us or do. That just replaces some lofty concepts with mindless goose-stepping.


This serves to make the point that we are seeing examples of what patriotism is not by example of alternative patriots that are no more patriots than their alternative christian counterpart knows what it is to be a christian.

Alternative patriots fit a profile that will try to tell someone else they are not a patriot for a plethora of "reasons" that have absolutely nothing to do with patriotism or being one. They point a finger at someone on the left and say "you are not a patriot because....."
...you do not support this (fill in the superlative) president so you do not love this country
...you do not love this country because you are against (fill in the thing you are against the president on)
...you have not fought for this country, nevermind that they haven't either...and oops, you did?

And I still can't sort out the mother of all unpatriotic things, supporting Russia and Putin because trump does...what is that.

Patriots have a deep seated mistrust of Russia and particularly Putin...Russia has always been our adversary if not enemy, and those lines have been blurred by cyber attacks and our proxy war in Afghanistan in which we destroyed them financially. Obama gave heavy consideration to declaring cyber attacks and e******n meddling acts of war right before trump took office. We had placed significant sanctions on them, as well as taking away two enclaves here. Trump comes in and calls Putin his Komrade and his blind alt patriotic acolytes see no reason to keep an eye on the myriad of places where we will be seeing a conflict in which Putin is allied with everyone we consider adversaries?

Anyone still supporting trump needs a TP tattooed on their foreheads so we can know we have a Trump patriot in our presence. (that's rhetoric, lighten up...I don't really believe that)

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 16:34:11   #
Sonny Magoo Loc: Where pot pie is boiled in a kettle
 
slatten49 wrote:
“It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”

Lawrence W. Reed

Patriotism these days is like Christmas—lots of people caught up in a festive atmosphere replete with lights and spectacles. We hear reminders about “the true meaning” of Christmas—and we may even mutter a few guilt-ridden words to that effect ourselves—but each of us spends more time and thought in parties, gift-giving, and the other paraphernalia of a secularized holiday than we do deepening our devotion to the true meaning.

So it is with patriotism, especially on Memorial Day in May, F**g Day in June, and Independence Day in July. Walk down Main Street America and ask one citizen after another what patriotism means and with few exceptions, you’ll get a passel of the most self-righteous but superficial and often dead-wrong answers. America’s Founders, the men and women who gave us reason to be patriotic in the first place, would think we’ve lost our way if they could see us now.

Since the infamous attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans in near unanimity have been “feeling” patriotic. For most, that sadly suffices to make one a solid patriot. But if I’m right, it’s time for Americans to take a refresher course.

Patriotism is not love of country, if by “country” you mean scenery—amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesty, and the like. Almost every country has pretty collections of rocks, water, and stuff that people grow and eat. If that’s what patriotism is all about, then Americans have precious little for which we can claim any special or unique love. And surely, patriotism cannot mean giving one’s life for a river or a mountain range.

Patriotism is not blind trust in anything our leaders tell us or do. That just replaces some lofty concepts with mindless goose-stepping.

Patriotism is not simply showing up to v**e. You need to know a lot more about what motivates a v**er before you judge his patriotism. He might be casting a b****t because he just wants something at someone else’s expense. Maybe he doesn’t much care where the politician he’s hiring gets it. Remember Dr. Johnson’s wisdom: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Waving the f**g can be an outward sign of patriotism, but let’s not cheapen the term by ever suggesting that it’s anything more than a sign. And while it’s always fitting to mourn those who lost their lives simply because they resided on American soil, that too does not define patriotism.

People in every country and in all times have expressed feelings of something we flippantly call “patriotism,” but that just begs the question. What is this thing, anyway? Can it be so cheap and meaningless that a few gestures and feelings make you patriotic?

Not in my book.

I subscribe to a patriotism rooted in ideas that in turn gave birth to a country, but it’s the ideas that I think of when I’m feeling patriotic. I’m a patriotic American because I revere the ideas that motivated the Founders and compelled them, in many instances, to put their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor on the line
.
What ideas? Read the Declaration of Independence again. Or, if you’re like most Americans these days, read it for the very first time. It’s all there. All men are created equal. They are endowed not by government but by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Premier among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Government must be limited to protecting the peace and preserving our liberties, and doing so through the consent of the governed. It’s the right of a free people to rid themselves of a government that becomes destructive of those ends, as our Founders did in a supreme act of courage and defiance more than two hundred years ago.

Call it freedom. Call it liberty. Call it wh**ever you want, but it’s the bedrock on which this nation was founded and from which we stray at our peril. It’s what has defined us as Americans. It’s what almost everyone who has ever lived on this planet has yearned for. It makes life worth living, which means it’s worth fighting and dying for.

An American Spin

I know that this concept of patriotism puts an American spin on the term. But I don’t know how to be patriotic for Uganda or Paraguay. I hope the Ugandans and Paraguayans have lofty ideals they celebrate when they feel patriotic, but whether or not they do is a question you’ll have to ask them. I can only tell you what patriotism means to me as an American.

I understand that America has often fallen short of the superlative ideas expressed in the Declaration. That hasn’t diminished my reverence for them, nor has it dimmed my hope that future generations of Americans will be re-inspired by them.

This brand of patriotism, in fact, gets me through the roughest and most cynical of times. My patriotism is never affected by any politician’s failures, or any shortcoming of some government policy, or any slump in the economy or stock market. I never cease to get that “rush” that comes from watching Old Glory flapping in the breeze, no matter how far today’s generations have departed from the original meaning of those stars and stripes. No outcome of any e******n, no matter how adverse, makes me feel any less dev**ed to the ideals our Founders put to pen in 1776. Indeed, as life’s experiences mount, the wisdom of what giants like Jefferson and Madison bestowed on us becomes ever more apparent to me. I get more fired up than ever to help others come to appreciate the same things.

During a recent visit to the land of my ancestors, Scotland, I came across a few very old words that gave me pause. Though they preceded our Declaration of Independence by 456 years, and come from three thousand miles away, I can hardly think of anything ever written here that more powerfully stirs in me the patriotism I’ve defined above. In 1320, in an effort to explain why they had spent the previous 30 years in bloody battle to expel the invading English, Scottish leaders ended their Declaration of Arbroath with this line: “It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”

Freedom—understanding it, living it, teaching it, and supporting those who are educating others about its principles. That, my fellow Americans, is what patriotism should mean to each of us today.
“It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fi... (show quote)

Nathan Hale would be smiling

Reply
 
 
Jan 23, 2020 16:42:25   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
woodguru wrote:
This serves to make the point that we are seeing examples of what patriotism is not by example of alternative patriots that are no more patriots than their alternative christian counterpart knows what it is to be a christian.

Alternative patriots fit a profile that will try to tell someone else they are not a patriot for a plethora of "reasons" that have absolutely nothing to do with patriotism or being one. They point a finger at someone on the left and say "you are not a patriot because....."
...you do not support this (fill in the superlative) president so you do not love this country
...you do not love this country because you are against (fill in the thing you are against the president on)
...you have not fought for this country, nevermind that they haven't either...and oops, you did?

And I still can't sort out the mother of all unpatriotic things, supporting Russia and Putin because trump does...what is that.

Patriots have a deep seated mistrust of Russia and particularly Putin...Russia has always been our adversary if not enemy, and those lines have been blurred by cyber attacks and our proxy war in Afghanistan in which we destroyed them financially. Obama gave heavy consideration to declaring cyber attacks and e******n meddling acts of war right before trump took office. We had placed significant sanctions on them, as well as taking away two enclaves here. Trump comes in and calls Putin his Komrade and his blind alt patriotic acolytes see no reason to keep an eye on the myriad of places where we will be seeing a conflict in which Putin is allied with everyone we consider adversaries?

Anyone still supporting trump needs a TP tattooed on their foreheads so we can know we have a Trump patriot in our presence. (that's rhetoric, lighten up...I don't really believe that)
This serves to make the point that we are seeing e... (show quote)


Why do you h**e Russians?

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 16:50:20   #
slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
 
Sonny Magoo wrote:
Nathan Hale would be smiling

And, as well, Patrick Henry

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 17:47:27   #
lindajoy Loc: right here with you....
 
Pariahjf wrote:
God bless EVERY country, EVERY person, and EVERY future.


Yes, God Bless All~~✨💫🙏

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 18:36:15   #
Hug
 
nwtk2007 wrote:
Do you see the democrats of the House as being patriotic in their attempt to remove the president? Guys like Schiff, Pelosi, Schummer and the rest??


Absolutely Not! Schiff, Pelosi and Schummer are putting themselves over the interest of the country. They are not patriots, they are greedy scumbags. They want to destroy America.

Reply
 
 
Jan 23, 2020 18:36:26   #
Carol Kelly
 
slatten49 wrote:
“It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”

Lawrence W. Reed

Patriotism these days is like Christmas—lots of people caught up in a festive atmosphere replete with lights and spectacles. We hear reminders about “the true meaning” of Christmas—and we may even mutter a few guilt-ridden words to that effect ourselves—but each of us spends more time and thought in parties, gift-giving, and the other paraphernalia of a secularized holiday than we do deepening our devotion to the true meaning.

So it is with patriotism, especially on Memorial Day in May, F**g Day in June, and Independence Day in July. Walk down Main Street America and ask one citizen after another what patriotism means and with few exceptions, you’ll get a passel of the most self-righteous but superficial and often dead-wrong answers. America’s Founders, the men and women who gave us reason to be patriotic in the first place, would think we’ve lost our way if they could see us now.

Since the infamous attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans in near unanimity have been “feeling” patriotic. For most, that sadly suffices to make one a solid patriot. But if I’m right, it’s time for Americans to take a refresher course.

Patriotism is not love of country, if by “country” you mean scenery—amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesty, and the like. Almost every country has pretty collections of rocks, water, and stuff that people grow and eat. If that’s what patriotism is all about, then Americans have precious little for which we can claim any special or unique love. And surely, patriotism cannot mean giving one’s life for a river or a mountain range.

Patriotism is not blind trust in anything our leaders tell us or do. That just replaces some lofty concepts with mindless goose-stepping.

Patriotism is not simply showing up to v**e. You need to know a lot more about what motivates a v**er before you judge his patriotism. He might be casting a b****t because he just wants something at someone else’s expense. Maybe he doesn’t much care where the politician he’s hiring gets it. Remember Dr. Johnson’s wisdom: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Waving the f**g can be an outward sign of patriotism, but let’s not cheapen the term by ever suggesting that it’s anything more than a sign. And while it’s always fitting to mourn those who lost their lives simply because they resided on American soil, that too does not define patriotism.

People in every country and in all times have expressed feelings of something we flippantly call “patriotism,” but that just begs the question. What is this thing, anyway? Can it be so cheap and meaningless that a few gestures and feelings make you patriotic?

Not in my book.

I subscribe to a patriotism rooted in ideas that in turn gave birth to a country, but it’s the ideas that I think of when I’m feeling patriotic. I’m a patriotic American because I revere the ideas that motivated the Founders and compelled them, in many instances, to put their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor on the line
.
What ideas? Read the Declaration of Independence again. Or, if you’re like most Americans these days, read it for the very first time. It’s all there. All men are created equal. They are endowed not by government but by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Premier among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Government must be limited to protecting the peace and preserving our liberties, and doing so through the consent of the governed. It’s the right of a free people to rid themselves of a government that becomes destructive of those ends, as our Founders did in a supreme act of courage and defiance more than two hundred years ago.

Call it freedom. Call it liberty. Call it wh**ever you want, but it’s the bedrock on which this nation was founded and from which we stray at our peril. It’s what has defined us as Americans. It’s what almost everyone who has ever lived on this planet has yearned for. It makes life worth living, which means it’s worth fighting and dying for.

An American Spin

I know that this concept of patriotism puts an American spin on the term. But I don’t know how to be patriotic for Uganda or Paraguay. I hope the Ugandans and Paraguayans have lofty ideals they celebrate when they feel patriotic, but whether or not they do is a question you’ll have to ask them. I can only tell you what patriotism means to me as an American.

I understand that America has often fallen short of the superlative ideas expressed in the Declaration. That hasn’t diminished my reverence for them, nor has it dimmed my hope that future generations of Americans will be re-inspired by them.

This brand of patriotism, in fact, gets me through the roughest and most cynical of times. My patriotism is never affected by any politician’s failures, or any shortcoming of some government policy, or any slump in the economy or stock market. I never cease to get that “rush” that comes from watching Old Glory flapping in the breeze, no matter how far today’s generations have departed from the original meaning of those stars and stripes. No outcome of any e******n, no matter how adverse, makes me feel any less dev**ed to the ideals our Founders put to pen in 1776. Indeed, as life’s experiences mount, the wisdom of what giants like Jefferson and Madison bestowed on us becomes ever more apparent to me. I get more fired up than ever to help others come to appreciate the same things.

During a recent visit to the land of my ancestors, Scotland, I came across a few very old words that gave me pause. Though they preceded our Declaration of Independence by 456 years, and come from three thousand miles away, I can hardly think of anything ever written here that more powerfully stirs in me the patriotism I’ve defined above. In 1320, in an effort to explain why they had spent the previous 30 years in bloody battle to expel the invading English, Scottish leaders ended their Declaration of Arbroath with this line: “It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”

Freedom—understanding it, living it, teaching it, and supporting those who are educating others about its principles. That, my fellow Americans, is what patriotism should mean to each of us today.
“It is not for honor or glory or wealth that we fi... (show quote)


But “each of us” should have read “many of us “. In my family, two dozen of us join for a dinner prepared by all the women and Bless the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father thanking him for all our blessings before we sit down to eat. We don’t buy Christmas gifts except for the children. Instead, we each bring one $20.00 gift and draw numbers. We praise God for giving us his son whose birth we’re celebrating and then we eat and have laughter and fun. We’re all Conservatives.

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 18:38:03   #
Carol Kelly
 
Hug wrote:
Absolutely Not! Schiff, Pelosi and Schummer are putting themselves over the interest of the country. They are not patriots, they are greedy scumbags. They want to destroy America.


Thank you. Totally correct. The Republicans must stand up and put them in their place. Well, can’t really put them where they belong, but shut their mouths.

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 18:38:10   #
Hug
 
Carol Kelly wrote:
But “each of us” should have read “many of us “. In my family, two dozen of us join for a dinner prepared by all the women and Bless the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father thanking him for all our blessings before we sit down to eat. We don’t buy Christmas gifts except for the children. Instead, we each bring one $20.00 gift and draw numbers. We praise God for giving us his son whose birth we’re celebrating and then we eat and have laughter and fun. We’re all Conservatives.


Sounds like a great American family.

Reply
Jan 23, 2020 18:40:15   #
Carol Kelly
 
Weasel wrote:
Agreed 100 %
MAGA TRUMP 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
AND MAY his daughter become the first female president in 2025


It was a great post. I just disagreed with being lumped in with people who don’t celebrate the birthday of a Jesus Christ.

Reply
Page <<first <prev 3 of 4 next>
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.
Main
OnePoliticalPlaza.com - Forum
Copyright 2012-2024 IDF International Technologies, Inc.