Those Yellow Ribbons

Wikipedia defines patriotism as:

“Generally, any selfless act that directly benefits the nation is considered
patriotic. Perhaps the clearest example is the act of risking death in
battle…..In addition, symbolic acts are also often considered to be patriotic. Such acts would include displaying the national flag, singing the national anthem, placing a patriotic bumper sticker on one’s vehicle, or any other way of publicly proclaiming one’s allegiance to the nation.”

Let’s be practical and admit that to be selfish is a human characteristic and patriotism and tribal allegiance need to be learned. Greed and corporate goals are natural enemies of patriotism. Many years ago there was a campaign to “Buy American” with little flag labels sewn into clothes and stamped onto products. It is gone now replaced by a government that gives money to corporations who ship jobs overseas. Should we get all our products at the cheapest price or should we support American manufacturing? Are manufacturing and a large middle class even essential for a healthy society? Supporting all things American used to be patriotic, now your patriotism is measured by whether you support war – a war instrumental in gaining control over oil production .

I watched Frontline last night and it discussed the ethics of Walmart, a company originally founded on buying American but a corporation that has now replaced free enterprise by a dictatorship role towards manufacturers. It seems so ironic that most of my neighbors bought their yellow magnetic signs and lapel flags at this predatory behemoth that puts profit over patriotism (and it would be REALLY ironic if those ribbons and flags were made in China).

Is Halliburton patriotic? According to the site Citizen Works “under Cheney's tenure, the number of Halliburton subsidiaries in offshore tax havens increased from 9 to 44. Meanwhile, Halliburton went from paying $302 million in company taxes in 1998 to getting an $85 million tax refund in 1999.”

Is Bush patriotic? Was it patriotic that Bush and his fellow investors attempted to blackmail the city of Arlington (home of the Texas Rangers) into paying for a new stadium through a sales tax increase by threatening to take the team elsewhere then reneged on his debt to the city when he sold the team? Anyone with a smidgeon of curiosity can check up on Bush’s insider trading – the antithesis of free enterprise.

The corporations do not want free enterprise with competition. What they're really want is deregulation so big corporations like Walmart, Microsoft, Clear Channels and Enron can kill off their competition.

I would add that a patriotic person would work to make his country a better place for the next generation. The patriotic person would not leave his children in debt or on an unlivable planet. A patriotic citizen not only slaps a token magnetic yellow ribbon on his car, he pays his share of taxes, lives an ethical life, and puts his country before discount shopping.

Theodore Roosevelt said,

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the
president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he
himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he
efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact
extent that by inefficiently or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the
country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about
the president or anyone else.”