Patriotism

When I was stationed in North Eastern France in the 1960s, during my service as an enlisted man in the Army, several friends and I were in Luxemburg one evening. We were sitting in a sidewalk café, one of many that surrounded a small park in the middle of which was a gazebo where a band was playing. At one point in the evening the band struck up the Stars Spangled Banner and everyone sitting in the various cafes stood up. It was the 4th of July and we were most likely the only Americans in the area. My eyes welled up and as I beamed with pride.
I always considered myself a patriot. I enlisted in the Army and volunteered for service in Vietnam. I have always taken pride in the accomplishments of our great country. However, when I saw some of the flag waving and heard the rhetoric of members of groups calling themselves patriots, I started questioning my own patriotism because my feelings were so far removed from theirs. I started wondering if they indeed are patriots, then how can I be. Then, somewhere along the way I heard a distinction made between two different kinds of patriotism, “ethnic” and “inclusive”. I was relieved to find that I was no less patriotic than I had thought of myself but just not an ethnic patriot.
In the simplest terms, Inclusive patriotism considers anyone a citizen of a nation, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity a legitimate and equal members of the nation. Ethnic nationalism on the other hand, views one particular group as being more legitimate than another. I believe that the various vocal patriotic movements attribute legitimacy to different groupings. Some believe that we are a Christian Nation (a young Southern Islamaphobe, when confronted with a comparison of Islam to Catholicism, responded that Catholics are not Christian), others a nation of European descendents, others an Anglo-Saxon and some still stick to the notion of a white nation. Though the outward agenda of the Tea Party are less government and lower taxes, I believe deep down inside many pine for return to an era when they perceive their group was the Country and everyone else and outsider. I don’t think that most patriots at the Tea Party rallies recognize that the patriot draped in the flag standing next to them is imagining a different country than they and in that country they may be outsiders.