They Require Each Other

(The Formula for Patriotism)

We have just celebrated Memorial Day weekend – a time when we acknowledge the sacrifice made by those in the military so our democracy can exist and continue.  I have an Uncle and a cousin who served in WWII.  I have a friend that died in the Korean War. I served as a chaplain in the Vietnam War.  Supposedly, the issue of all these wars was what did they really stand for? The issue that sums up Memorial Day weekend is: What is patriotism?

It has been a common notion in American politics for citizens to ask what the country can do for them.  The answer to this question is often the criteria used for how people vote. But John F. Kennedy said in his inauguration speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” This question is often the criteria used to ascertain the nature of patriotism.  I suggest that these two questions are inseparable and mutually fulfilling.  They sustain each other.  Together they give focus to the meaning of patriotism in a democratic government.

Democracy is a two-way street.  Lincoln captured this when he suggested that it was of, by, and for the people.  It is the people (of) that create the government (by) that blesses themselves (for).  It is the people that must determine the common good and, then, make the common good happen.  Citizenship is both voting and doing the vote.  Patriotism is both defining what is worth dying for in respect to one’s country and being willing to die for what is defined.  The both/and of this dual asking is the citizenry casting its bread on the water and expecting it to return in abundance.  It is to sow so that one can reap. 

However, only doing one and expecting the other is to invest in a fallacy. It is to be grateful for the sacrifice of others without sacrificing myself.  It is expecting to reap without sowing.  It is to suppose that for the people will happen without by the people happening.  When JFK called for the people to ask what they can do for their country he was calling for a correction of posture – from being passive receivers to being assertive givers – for the citizens to create the government they expect to bless them and to die for that government if necessary.

There is a subtle reprimand buried in his admonition.  It was for the American public to grow up from being receiving children to being contributing adults. A sign that this may at last be happening is when we citizens start voting on what the nation needs rather than what individuals  want – when we start focusing on community good rather than individual whim. Patriotism is a community event.  No one was ever patriotic to satisfy personal goals.  Hopefully, by voting in the Biden administration we have voted for democracy and not just to escape despotism – to assure the common good and not just to assume personal good. Hopefully, it was a patriotic vote. Hopefully, we are asking what we can do for our country as well as what our country can do for us.  Hopefully, we have finally invested in the right formula for patriotism.  It’s all about community and what community means.

Robert

Robert T. Latham

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