A Patriot’s Paradox

I object to “me”

I am a liberal and a conservative and a progressive and a nonpartisan independent and I have crystal clarity about what and who I am. And I am an American who objects strenuously to American acts and actors (we have been our own destroyers far more and for far longer than any outsider attempting to destroy us!) who would tear down critical institutions that would, for all people, help “Form a More Perfect Union”—

…establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense [not commit violent aggression on the streets of America and directly or indirectly in foreign countries!], promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty [to all and to the future of all].

“Me” Dichotomy

I object strenuously to self-serving panderers who in service to narrow interests disavow the public interest, the common good.

I

 object strenuously to these destroyers who promote extremes of one kind of another all the while claiming that the other fellow is at fault or is the problem—the minorities of “one- percenters” or the varieties of colored people or this era’s flood of displaced, stateless, conflict or war-forced migrating people.

I object strenuously to these destroyers who on one pretext or another neglect America’s cities and raze foreign cities; and, in gated mind and matter, refuse to cross the isle or the street to welcome or hold civil conversations with colleagues or neighbors.

Print, broadcast and other media personalities—Limbaughs to Bernyites to Hannities, KPFA-Berkeley to New York Times reporters and columnists—feed America’s dangerous (guns, gays, gods, fetuses and terrorists, red/blue, socialist/capitalist, rightwing/leftwing, all government/no government, us/them) dichotomies;

a state of disconnect and expedient compartmentalization that defies essentials of nature, humanity; society in its broadest, healthiest and most inclusive sense that makes all life possible.

I

 object strenuously to these destroyers who cannot see, will not see, or do not care to see the destruction of the United States of America and particularly their hand in a destruction that is imprinted, codified in US foreign policies, in corruption and lethal weaponry trafficking; all the while neglecting Americans’ crying needs for basic human rights such as permanent shelter, healthcare, sustaining work and living wages, clean air and water.

As these destroyers have stymied developing countries—handing out cellular phones instead of building sanitation systems and self-sustaining programs to educate the young toward self-determination—they have also failed to sustain the same in the United States where all dichotomies, all extremes manifest in an embrace of “me.”

The selfish ideology of individualism and careless “charity” whether left right or center, in its closeted yet not undetectable hours, says to all nature:

“you are deplorably different,” banished and exploited “untouchables,”  “deserving of contempt and the crumbs tossed from tables of luxury and waste.

I

 object strenuously to those who kill and call it “honorable” and to those who circle their homes and commercial establishments with flags of the United States and call it “patriotism.”

Patriots’ Imperative Paradox: Dissent Together

I dislike repeating myself but maybe this moment merits repetition. In my 2014 book UNCONSCIONABLE: how the world sees us, I quoted political activist and author Helen Keller (1880–1968) as speaking for me when she said

‘I look upon true patriotism as the brotherhood of man [humankind comprised of men, women, children] and the service of all to all.’

“

But a state of affairs in which men (mostly men, no offense to men) selfishly and cynically sacrifice the public interest to private interests is the very definition of unpatriotic when patriotic defines those who ‘love’ their country. 

The current state of affairs sacrifices the country’s domestic and international imperatives—as to care and character and common good— to private, selfish, narrow interests. Government officials pledge their allegiance to private corporate interests and, worse than the kings of old, they comprise an egomaniacal cabal, an oppressive plutocracy that threatens not only the United States of America but also the whole world.”

The imperative dissent of true patriots acting together, not in fashion or in mobs or in hate-filled hash-tagged outbursts; but in thoughtful self-reflection—this may well end the tyranny of dichotomy, concentration and exclusion; stymie the insidious takeover, and perhaps reenergize the potential and promise of a great nation.

Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB