Past, Present, Future: Patriotism Is a Terribly Important, Very Elusive Concept.
By: Commentary
Patriotism and nationalism on behalf of ones country is a very positive and beautiful thing. We should all be proud Americans. We live in the nation with the most freedom and individual liberty in the world. America 🇺🇸 is an exceptional nation. The best country man kind has created. It was founded by divine providence and recognized our God given rights. We are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Surge Summary: Patriotism is a vital concept and to the degree it does not get passed for one generation to another, that is a problem.
When I was growing up, and probably from the age of 5 (which would have been the year 1939) it was becoming apparent, even to a kid like me, that there was something going on in the world…something BIG. America was helping The Allies, but had not yet entered the war…that was to come in two years.
As a kid I did all the usual things back then. I had a bike when I was big enough to ride one, and with my friends we’d ride all over the place. Once we all went to Prospect Park, which was about 8-10 miles from where I lived at the time.
My cousin, Jerry, was my idol. I thought he was the best thing ever. He could speak eloquently (at least I thought so), and was the absolute best at building model airplanes. He was handsome and, I guess, had no problem getting girlfriends. He always treated me like I knew what he was talking about…which made me feel really good.
By the time America was dragged into the war, December 7th, 1941, I was seven years old and a little bit more aware of things going on around me and in the world. My parents spoke of the war and, at one point my father got a wall-size map of Europe and we began to plot how the war was going…D-Day was far off in the distance, but there was North Africa to look at. We made tiny flags of the different countries taking part in the war, and we’d put them on push-pins on the map, so we kept track of how the war was going.
Now, here in the early part of January 2020, I’m in my upper 80’s and looking back to how I became a patriot. There’s probably as many definitions of what a patriot is, and patriotism, as there are people that will talk about it. In my case, seeing the flag, hearing march music, watching close-order drilling or a military parade, even just the first bars of the Star-spangled Banner, and I tear up. I weep, unashamedly, seeing members of the armed forces as they defend our country. Is that patriotism? I guess so.
Reading American history, and that includes the good AND the bad, makes me think about this country, and what we’re doing. We were once described as “the noble experiment” and a lot of people thought that our glory days were behind us. I have to differ. I think we just get better and better…and maybe that’s patriotism. One thing I DO know, patriotism has nothing to do with politics. Now and then the helm of the ship of state is handed from one person to another, but the course should never change. America is the new world personified, I think…a huge country with just about every type of climate and landscape that one could want. A nation where any one that really tries, CAN succeed, and live what’s been called “The American Dream”.
The saying is that old men talk about the past because they have no future, and young men talk about the future because they have no past…and I suppose that is true, in a way. There is, also, the possibility that old men talk about the past because some things were better then…and some things didn’t get better with age. Patriotism is one of the things that, somehow, didn’t get passed from one generation to another…and that’s a shame.
If you live in a country, you should respect the ways and traditions of that country, or find someplace else to live. America is a pretty tolerant place to live, but there ARE limits to tolerance. No country is going to accept people living in it that are plotting its demise. No government is, or shouldn’t, allow dissention to become outright sedition or an attempted coup. Patriots should be aware of what goes on in their country…and be prepared to step up and assist their nation.
So, patriotism is a lot of different things…to different people. To me, it’s standing by my country and keeping it safe, as much as it’s possible for me to do so.
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seeing the flag, hearing march music, watching close-order drilling or a military parade, even just the first bars of the Star-spangled Banner, and I tear up. I weep, unashamedly, seeing members of the armed forces as they defend our country. Is that patriotism? I guess so.
Reading American history, and that includes the good AND the bad, makes me think about this country, and what we’re doing. We were once described as “the noble experiment” and a lot of people thought that our glory days were behind us. I have to differ. I think we just get better and better…and maybe that’s patriotism. One thing I DO know, patriotism has nothing to do with politics. Now and then the helm of the ship of state is handed from one person to another, but the course should never change. America is the new world personified, I think…a huge country with just about every type of climate and landscape that one could want. A nation where any one that really tries, CAN succeed, and live what’s been called “The American Dream”.
I'm sure you're aware about my feelings about patriotism. I've posted more than once that it saddens me to see athletes kneeling when the National Anthem is played, that so many show disrespect for the Stars and Stripes. I have always felt, as the author does, when he wrote:
I always argued that the flag and the national anthem are constant symbols of a country, and respect for them should not change with a change of administration. Notwithstanding that I am a Canadian, I am emotionally moved when I hear songs like the American National Anthem, or The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and I have always had respect for the Stars and Stripes.
The author also wrote:
...which is a nice way of saying "Love it or leave it" with a little of "Do as the Romans do" mixed in. Some may not understand why I am happy living in China when I'm not a Communist, but maybe it's because I'm not an activist, I'm totally apolitical here (but have supported the Canadian and Ontario Conservative Parties for the past 40 years), I mind my own business and I'm very comfortable and happily married to a beautiful Chinese Buddhist woman who treats me like an Emperor.
I posted a nice seed about freedom, democracy, and patriotism coming out of the election today in the Republic of China. One nations overt and covert interference in the campaign and the way people are being treated in Hong Kong played a big role.
Well, pot - kettle. Please don't boast that your beloved America has never interfered in the politics and/or elections of another country. The protesters in Hong Kong, being encouraged by America, are irrevocably bound to become part of the mainland Beijing government down the road. Don't even dream that something different is going to happen or else you have no concept whatsoever about the resolve of the Beijing government.
Funny, I just posted a comment so supportive of patriotism in the country you live in, so supportive of the author of the seed you posted, and you reply with a shot at the country I'm living in, which is not the topic of this seed.
No one said otherwise about Hong Kong 🇭🇰 in 2047. Hopefully by then the ideas being expressed in Hong Kong and Taipei now until then will be a contagion that will spread the ideas of democracy, free market capitalism, and religious liberty to the rest of the Chinese people in what is now the people’s republic. Chinese populations virtually everywhere outside of China itself currently experience such freedoms. I think that before 2047 there will be another 1989 event in China that will be successful and that then Hong Kong and the ROC would willingly join that kind of China.
Every single day I read reports about Christians being slaughtered by Muslims, tried and convicted for blasphemy to death sentences, their churches burned, today a pastor being held by Muslims and told that if he doesn't convert to Islam they were going to murder him, and that's what they've been doing every single day and you can't get your head out of China. I don't post the stories because there are members here who call me an Islamophobe. Don't you read the news about the slaughtering of Christians, or are you just too busy worrying about the fact that Christians in China are having some problems because they're no longer allowed to advertise their religion with crosses up high on the steeples of their churches and they're not allowed to proselytize and the world's going to come to an end unless every country in the world is an American style democracy?
Most of my seeds about religious liberty and America having an ambassador and staff pushing for it around the world do in fact deal with Islamist nation’s and their severe persecution of Christians in their regimes. Much more time or article size is spent dealing with things in the Middle East, North Africa and west Asia than on the recent intolerance and persecution in India and China. As for Democracy, be it parliamentary or American style, it is gaining in the world and most all Chinese peoples outside of mainland China are experiencing it now. The only way people accept the form of government provided by your host country is by having it imposed against their will by tanks rolling through the streets of their cities and shock troops to compel obedience backing them up. Will there be a Prague spring in Hong Kong in 2047 or a Budapest in Taipei in order to eliminate democracy among Chinese people?
In my more than 13 years here I have NEVER seen even ONE person unhappy with the government here, and I have taught and met with a lot of people during those years. So your hysteria about tanks rolling in the streets is laughable.
Poverty, which is a main reason for discontent, has been almost entirely eliminated in this country. Within the next few years it will be ENTIRELY eliminated in that virtually every person will have adequate food, shelter, education and access to health care. For example, the Uyghur vocational training and re-education camps are doing a good job of it, and I've already posted articles about that.
Buzz that is a humongous load of baloney...
The Xinjiang re-education camps , officially called Vocational Education and Training Centers by the government of the People's Republic of China , [9] [10] [11] are internment camps that have been operated by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional government for the purpose of indoctrinating Uyghur Muslims since 2017 [3] as part of a "people's war on terror" announced in 2014. [12] [13] The camps were established under General Secretary Xi Jinping 's administration [13] [14] and led by hardline party secretary , Chen Quanguo . These camps are reportedly operated outside the legal system ; many Uyghurs have reportedly been interned without trial and no charges have been levied against them. [15] [16] [17] Local authorities are reportedly holding hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Muslims from other ethnic minorities in these camps, for the stated purpose of countering extremism and terrorism as well as to promote sinicization . [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
As of 2018, it was estimated that the Chinese authorities may have detained hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million, of Uyghurs , Kazakhs , Kyrgyz , Hui (Muslims) and other ethnic Turkic Muslims , Christians as well as some foreign citizens such as Kazakhstanis , who are kept in these secretive internment camps throughout the region. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] In May 2018, Randall Schriver of the United States Department of Defense claimed that "at least a million but likely closer to three million citizens" were imprisoned in detention centers in a strong condemnation of the "concentration camps". [5] [6] In August 2018, a United Nations human rights panel said that it had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uyghurs in China have been held in "re-education camps". [30] [31] There have also been US-based media reports comparing the camps to the Chinese Cultural Revolution . [32] [33] [34]
In 2019, the United Nations ambassadors from 22 nations, including Australia , Canada , France , Germany , Japan , and the United Kingdom [35] [36] signed a letter condemning China's mass detention of the Uyghurs and other minority groups, urging the Chinese government to close the camps. [37] [38] [39] Conversely, a joint statement was alleged to be signed by 37 states that voiced approval of China's counter-terrorism program in Xinjiang, including Algeria , the DR Congo , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Syria , Pakistan , North Korea , Egypt , Nigeria , the Philippines and Sudan . [40] [35] [41] [36] [41]
You really think that the people of Hong Kong would like the current Chinese regime to fully direct rule them right now and be happy about it? Do you think that the free people of The Republic of China would happily and willingly subjugate themselves to Beijing now? No. The only way the current regime as it is now could rule free Chinese people who have personal, economic, and religious freedom and the vote is by force of arms and enemy tanks in the streets of Hong Kong and Taipei. For China unless they change, personal, economic, religious liberty, a form of democracy, a constitution and the franchise are going to be the mortal and ideological direct enemy of the people’s republic of China world wide.
So be it. I really don't give a damn, but you can keep uselessly beating your drum if it makes you happy.
There has not been a terrorist attack or mass murder in mainland China for 3 years. During those 3 years, how many mass murders, shootings and terrorist attacks have there been in the USA? As far as I'm concerned, I happier and feel much safer here than I would be in the USA. So, post all the Wikipedia stories you feel you have a need to do, but I really don't care.
It's no surprise to me that I can't open your link.
Sounds like the wicked step parents who beat their children into submission while reflecting “ we never have any problems in our great home”.
I will always be hopeful that China does make changes toward being a free market capitalist country with democracy and full individual rights including religious and voting and sooner rather than later. I’d be happy to see a Chinese democracy that included Hong Kong and Taiwan all living happily together even though such a combination would quickly surpass the USA as the #1 economy in the world.
That’s the beautiful Chinese government protecting you Buzz. You should be reveling in it.
Is that an example of the awesome freedom you have under the regime over there?
From Perrie’s Link,,,
The United Nations Human Rights Council should adopt a resolution establishing an international fact-finding mission to Xinjiang, the region of China where up to one million Turkic Muslims are being arbitrarily detained, a group of nongovernmental organizations said in a joint statement to UN member states today.
During the next session of the Human Rights Council, from February 25 to March 22, 2019, the Council will consider the outcome report of China’s November 2018 Universal Periodic Review, at which Chinese officials denied allegations of grave human rights violations in Xinjiang.
“The magnitude of abuses allegedly occurring in Xinjiang demand uncompromising scrutiny from the Human Rights Council,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director at Human Rights Watch. “The Human Rights Council’s integrity demands that states not allow China to hide behind its membership or economic might to escape accountability.”
The Chinese authorities have detained Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims – outside any legal process – in “political education” camps for their perceived disloyalty to the government and Chinese Communist Party. In those camps, they are subjected to forced political indoctrination, renunciation of their faith, mistreatment, and, in some cases, torture. Numerous UN experts, treaty bodies, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights have expressed grave concern about the situation in Xinjiang and called for unrestricted access to the region.
China has not responded positively to these requests. In December and January, the government arranged visits for some journalists and diplomats to what they claim to be mere “vocational training centers.” Following those visits, Chinese state media asserted that visitors found the conditions there “impress[ive]” and detainees “in good spirits.”
“China has had multiple opportunities over the past year to answer serious questions about the horrendous situation in Xinjiang, and at every turn provided narratives that strain credibility,” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International. “China should recognize that only an international fact-finding mission can separate facts from fiction and set the record straight.”
While you actually live there, I have people I know well from Hong Kong and The Republic of China.
And hopefully you treat her just as well if not better.
LOL. Damn right I do. Here is my Empress.
Wow Buzz, my first thought was of Klimt.
Klimt?
"Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism." (Wikipedia)
Why did you think of Klimt?
All the gold, I thought that was obvious.
He was also madly in love with the subject of his art.
Totally beautiful. She looks very royal, and the awesome regal gown and headdress is just gorgeous.
Thank you for sharing your lovely Bride.
LOL. I won't ever share my bride, but I'm happy to share photos of her.
Oh, okay, I wasn't that familiar with the works of Klimt. My favourite artist is J.M.W.Turner.
LOL!! Got'cha!
I wrote a really nice comment about the very positive seed topic, agreeing with it, and then I get a whole bunch of comments bitching about where I live. I make the mistake of saying I happen to be happy here and many of you get on your high horses and post hateful comments about China. What the fuck is the matter with everyone? Bitch about your own damn near civil war between your parties and their supporters, and about your gun murders (that don't happen here), and the faults of your present administration, or is it just easier to seek out other countries' situations in order to take the attention away from some of the horrors YOU live with?
I’m glad you are happy where you are Buzz; your patriotism is obvious.
Just don’t expect to tell lies about China, and not get a response back.
I talk about what I see, you talk about what you read. Fair enough.
I’m glad you are happy there. Really I am. I never could be happy there. I grew up in America and will die here happy that I got to be an American. China unless it becomes a free market capitalist democracy will become our arch rival and Cold War enemy over time and we all know it. We have a deal when we agreed to one China to protect and defend Taiwan should it ever be attacked. We will always be defending religious and ethnic minorities around the world including China. I hope China becomes free so none of the above happens. I hope things don’t get to the point that freedom, democracy, capitalism, and the vote don’t become anathema to you because it is free countries including your own that are the ones opposing a greater fascist China.
Buzz if you are “seeing” nothing but people happy with their government, and internment camps as “vocational training”, your patriotism has delved into propaganda. Duly noted.
I'm NOT a Chinese "PATRIOT". I'm not even a citizen here, but only a resident. I'm a lifelong, never-to-end being, CANADIAN citizen who will never give up his Canadian passport and right to hold it.
I'm as free as I want to be, and as far as anyone I have ever known here, so are they.as much as they wish to be.
I don't think democracy is perfect (especially when I see what it causes in the USA and the boondoggle in Israel). Neither is Communism (which is NOT fascism no matter how many times you call it that). Which is better is only a matter of opinion.
Did you not think there is capitalism in China? How do you explain Jack Ma or the other billionaires and millionaires here? I'm sure my brother-in-law who lives in a small mansion in a community surrounded by a golf course and drives an almost brand new BMW SUV as ONE of his cars is more of a capitalist than YOU are.
The vote is a creeping right. At this point in the mainland there is only a vote for lesser municipal positions, but that's a start. I'm sure when the present government has accomplished its aim for every person to have their needs satisfied (they are already almost entirely successful with their goal of elimination of poverty) the right to vote will be increased step by step. Maybe I'm wrong with that, but nobody I've ever met has said they wish they could vote.
I have no intention of returning to Canada, certainly as long as Trudeau and his party are in power - I hate what is happening there, I still cannot believe that Trudeau voted to condemn Israel - the first time Canada has EVER voted against Israel. Trudeau, the wannabe Muslim, did that to assure the loyalty of his growing Muslim voting community, so fuck the Jews.
I really don't wish to argue about this any more, because I'm not exactly happy about having to defend myself just because I happen to be happy here. I was thinking that if everyone else despises China so much, maybe I should just go back and delete all the photo-essays, and articles I've posted about the beauty and historical aspects of China because maybe they just arouse the hatred that's been thrown in my face here.
In free countries disagreement is not hatred. No one here hates you or hates China. We recognize the beauty of China and the historical significance of its people. We have no issue with the Chinese people. On the other hand we won’t silence our free speech rights just to keep them happy. If they want to boycott our sports or businesses because of what someone associated with them simply says then we will simply boycott them as a people. We will never allow them to use $ to compel us in what we can say period. We will have free speech whether they like it or not. This whole episode started with the Chinese response to the Houston Rockets GM that Americans stand by and double down on both the words and his right to speak them. Eventually there will be no more western sports in China as free people will inevitably say something to offend a dictatorship where they don’t live. Like the Muslim player on a European soccer team. Trump and Winnie the Po will reach a deal and keep serious relationships on track.
Just curious. Did the USA pass resolutions about this event in Canada, where the actions of separatists caused the whole country to be put under martial law?