Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 12, 1991 TAG: 9103120417
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONNA LEE POFF
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I'd like to think we aren't all insensitive jerks, although I know there are enough around to make a person have doubts. I'd like to think the snide comments and cultural slurs are merely moments of temporary insanity. I really would like to think that. But, most unfortunately, I'm afraid I know better.
I'm not quite sure why, but there is something about patriotism that kicks an American's mind into neutral and his mouth into fast forward. I have to admit it's not a uniquely American affliction, but I guess I always wanted to believe we were somehow better than that. I was taught as a child to admit when I was wrong. I'm admitting it.
I think our biggest problem is that many of us don't really know what patriotism is. We have the general idea, but our practice of it seems to be more than slightly off center.
I served eight years in the U.S. Navy, and it was there that I learned what patriotism really is. Patriotism is a feeling, a certain, warm glow from deep inside that you get when you're doing something to serve your country.
It doesn't really matter whether it's serving in the armed forces or doing volunteer work at a local charity. It's a sense of satisfaction from contributing, knowing that something you're doing really matters, if only in a small way. Picking up litter in the park gives me a warm, satisfied sensation that I'm helping to make my home better.
Patriotism, I have learned, doesn't mean waving a flag or wearing yellow ribbons or screaming anti-anything at the top of your lungs. Patriotism at its best is not loud and blatant. It is quiet and unassuming.
Patriotism is not simple or easy, not something you're born with. It's something you learn, sometimes painfully. It's having the strength to know when it's time to stop aggression, but it's also having the heart to be saddened when that means having to use aggression yourself.
Patriotism, in many ways, is a moment of silence when your president says a ground war has started, a simple prayer to whatever powers-that-be that what must be done is done quickly and as humanely as possible. Patriotism, simply put, is love in its highest, most elegant and sometimes its most difficult form.
I am a patriot. I don't wear yellow ribbons or little wooden hearts painted red, white and blue. I don't wave my flag and scream for anyone's blood. I don't need to. I know in my heart who and what I am, and all the yellow ribbons in the world aren't enough to show the patriotism I feel. I am an American, and I don't need to prove that to anyone. Especially another American.
And neither does Mr. Nauman.
by CNB