More on Patriotism

I'm off work today and it's six days until the Vent Haven ConVENTion, so you would assume that Lisa is out in one of the museum buildings cleaning and straightening and spiffing and getting the museum ready for next week.

But you'd be wrong.

Lisa is serving her first day of jury duty today. And as she rolled out of bed at 6:30 this morning to get ready for her day, I thought some more about the post I made back on July 4th when I stated that I really didn't "get" patriotism. And I thought to myself this morning, THIS is patriotism. Taking time out from your busy schedule to serve on a jury and fulfill your civic duty--that's patriotism. Taking the time to learn about political issues and candidates and then going to the voting booth and actually voting--that's patriotism. Donating money or--even more so--donating time to the candidate of your choice--that's patriotism. Paying your fair share of taxes so that the government can provide the necessary services to its people--that's patriotism.

Even though it was my day off, I got out of bed at 6:30 with Lisa, and I went downstairs to work out. I have an elliptical exerciser that I spend 45 minutes on twice a week, and I pass the time by watching TV shows that I've recorded on my DVD recorder's hard drive. This morning I was watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Typically Star Trek episodes don't get me thinking too much about patriotism. After all, the United States doesn't even exist in the world of Star Trek. But the episode I was watching today was about three crew members who had crash landed and thought they were going to die. One of the crew members was a mother, and she worried that her daughter back on board the main ship would be alone. Another crew member, though, said that he wasn't worried. He hadn't seen his daughter in four years, but he knew there were people around her who loved her and who were raising her well in his absence.

And I started thinking: This is just a stupid T.V. show, but there are soldiers--both male and female--in Iraq and Afghanistan who are having REAL conversations like that all of the time, soldiers who have left their children behind and who have to trust that there are people at home who are taking care of their children. And at home there are tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people who ARE taking care of those children, making sacrifices for the sake of those children and their parents who are risking their lives every day for policies (whether justified or not) that our nation has made.

That's patriotism!

It is all of those things. It's not flying a flag in front of your house or tearing up when The Star Spangled Banner is played or putting a "Support Our Troops" bumper sticker on your car.

And Barack Obama is right: True patriotism is not wearing a flag pin either.