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Everyone says we've got to support the military. Well of course we do. The way I support the military is to pray for their safety and that we end aggression that is leading to so many deaths in vain. If any one thinks that after we hand over power and leave Iraq that democracy is going to survive, I think they're misguided. I think some kind of theocracy will arise, and it will not be pretty.
Shelia Bumgarner, Member of the local Quaker organization Charlotte Friends Meeting.
The first two words in the dictionary beside the word patriotism are "devoted love," followed by "support and defend one's country." For me, patriotism doesn't arise only when there is a war. My patriotism is based on love and support for my country because I know the history of America and its people. Quakers seek to find God in everyone. This type of love is hard to explain and even harder for others to accept, but it spiritually removes the desire to harm anyone. We believe that this is what God calls us to do. Quakers have been imprisoned and have died for this belief. I have heard that my beliefs are unrealistic as well as unpatriotic. But true peace has to start somewhere. It is not un-American to want the best for your country, and I will defend (peacefully) anyone wishing to express truth even if it is differs from the main point of view.
Nationalism is a dangerous mindset. Countries that follow this path have fallen to ruin. The reasons for entering Iraq were based on lies, and nothing good ever came from a lie. However, I pray that all our troops will be safe and that the people of Iraq can peacefully build a democratic society. If the latter happens, the success will bring the nation closer. However, if it fails, I'm afraid it will just be a blip in the larger historical picture and add to the apathy that already plagues our society. When we stop questioning our government and our elected officials, we have ceased to be Americans.
Jonathan Berkey, Professor of History at Davidson (in particular, Middle East/Islamic history).
Patriotism, as Samuel Johnson once remarked, is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Johnson's point, of course, was not that patriotism is bad, but that bad people put it to use. Politicians use it, for example, to obscure or deflect attention from their failed policies, and to undermine the critical thought and civic engagement that is necessary to a functioning democracy.
Johnson lived and wrote in the 18th century, but his words perfectly describe the use of patriotism by the Bush administration and others who would equate patriotism with a blind adherence to an arrogant and misguided government. Is patriotism about American power, or American principles and values? The answer should be clear. There is nothing special, nothing peculiarly "American" about the exercise of power by the American government in Iraq -- there is nothing in it, in other words, to excite the imagination and pride of a patriot.
Mari Cohen, Davidson College student.
Having grown up in Washington, DC, in a politically active family, ideas about patriotism have been thrown around as long as I can remember. I always had a picture of a patriotic person as someone proudly waving their American Flag and smiling while watching the fireworks at the Washington Monument on July 4th. It was about being proud of your country and its values, that you could go abroad and say you were from the United States and know that no matter the response, inside you were truly proud to be an American.
Because of the atrocities our country has committed over the past few years, patriotism has taken on a new meaning. I now see being patriotic as a duty -- that duty being to uphold the values on which this country was founded.
It is my right as a citizen of this country to be against that war and to voice that opinion. It is not as if I don't care about the troops that have been sent over there (quite the contrary). But I fundamentally do not agree with any aspect of this war, and believe that the president should be impeached for lying. If someone wants to call me anti-American for thinking this, I can't stop them; they are entitled to their opinion as well.
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