Stanley here. I work in an office with 3 women. Two are from Lebanon (Nat and My Boss The CFO), one is from The Philippines (Polly), and one is from Argentina (Silvana). I’m getting to know them a little better as the days go by. A couple of anecdotes:Nat asks me, “Do you like The States?” I reply, noncommittally, “There are definitely good things and bad things. I like the city that I’m from.”
She follows up, “Are you proud to be an American?” It’s worth noting that I’ve always been slightly disturbed by the notion of “pride” at being from a particular place. I never really know what it’s supposed to mean. I’m not proud like when I sink a tricky pool shot…and I’m not proud like when my sister publishes an article on her latest research…and I’m not ashamed…except of George Bush.
So I shake my head and reply, “No.”
“Ah,” says Nat. “So you’re a terrorist?” I laugh. She still feels she should make it clear she was only joking. Frankly, I’m impressed with her knowledge of the black and white sentimentality that many Americans have on this subject, and her ability to joke about it in English, her third language. Polly and Silvana join the conversation. Everyone agrees that George Bush is awful.
The next day we discuss Beirut. I’ve heard several students, both here and at HCT sing its praises. The beaches, the mountains, the cafés: The Paris of the Middle East. It sounds fantastic. Nat talks about the smell of the air and her morning coffee. She nostalgically recalls the “cache”. “You know this word, cache?” She asks.
“I understand what it means.” I say. I decide I must see this place. “Next summer.” I say.
My Boss The CFO stops by to use the copy machine. She tells about her time in Lebanon. In an animated, pleasant way, she tells about driving in to work, during the war, listening to the shelling that was being described on the radio as they drove towards it, while they all yelled, “It’s OK! It’s OK! Just Go!” She follows that up with a story from after the war, told in the same pleasant, almost happy voice, about watching from her porch as a truckload of bombs was removed from the house next door. The truck was having trouble getting up the hill and everyone was watching to see what would happen.
She explains, “It slowly dawned on everyone, ‘What are we doing?! We should get out of here!’ A half an hour later the truck exploded and destroyed the empty building, and my apartment.” She laughs. “After that, I'd had enough. I moved to Canada.”
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7 comments:
A special OPB is doing on patriotism:
http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/posts/list/1215410.page
Thanks Midge. Good forum going on over there.
My thoughts on patriotism: It's an outdated relic of a bygone era that has no place in an enlightened society. Thoughts anyone?
I don't know, I think if a nation of people can unite around a common goal and then achieve that goal, it makes sense to be proud of our collective selves as a nation. That national pride would be acceptable, say, for example, if everyone in American gave $1 to help Palestinian children or something. I might feel proud of America in that circumstance. But when there's nothing in particular to be proud of (and plenty to be ashamed of) but we go on flag-waving anyway, is that patriotic? Because in that case yes, I agree it has no place in enlightened society. There are times when I feel proud of American and times when I don't. But, I do feel obligated to try to make it better - vote, write letters to my senators, etc etc, an impulse borne out of some sense of loyalty to the other 300million, especially those less fortunate. Is that patriotic? Interesting questions.
I agree. Nothing wrong with feeling pride when something you are a part of is "good". I just feel that patriotism as a motivating factor has no tangible benefit and tons of drawbacks. I submit that in the history of the world no legislation or governmental action that has been described as "patriotic" has ever had a net-positive effect. My original statement was a little extreme, but so is my feeling on the subject, and I realize I'm definitely in the minority. Just felt like throwing it out there....
The problem as I see it is blind patriotism. "My country can do no wrong." Al Franken had a good analogy about how conservatives and liberals love their country. Conservatives love the US like a small child loves his mama. She's always right, and as long as you do what she says, she'll be nice to you. A liberal loves the US like he loves his wife. You don't always get along, and you have to work at the relationship. But deep down, you care enough to do what it takes to improve the relationship.
I have been pondering your question and here is what I have come up with. I don’t feel patriotic in the sense of waving little flags and putting bumper stickers on my car. But when I lived in China and England I felt glad that I belong to the US and not to them. I have also felt the need to defend/explain the virtues of the US and explain that “no, not all of us support Bush” while I was abroad. I feel pride for America when people come together and vote against hate filled ballot measures and when the courts make “good” decisions. Who knows maybe if Obama gets elected all those people who haven’t felt patriotic in a long time will start being the flag wavers.
On a related note, I feel more pride towards the state and city I live in, then towards the country. If I lived in Alabama I wouldn’t describe myself as an Alabaman, I would keep telling people I was an Oregonian.
God bless you. I love you both, plus miss you and wish we were having this conversation in person. I'd probably be a prick and take my argument further than I even believed in it and have to apologize later, but still....
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