From the Conversation indicating patriotism dies in darkness as does democtacy. Last night, CBS News Radio went dark after nearly 100 years on the air.
The shuttering of the venerable media institution speaks to just how much the information landscape has changed in the internet age. Audience fragmentation and more news sources are not, on their face, a dangerous development. But when coupled with deregulation, corporate consolidation and the weakening of public interest requirements, these shifts don’t bode well for democratic deliberation and civic life, writes Penn State media scholar Matthew Jordan.
And i'd add the US turned into precisely what it rebelled against in 1776 and in 1860 and again when women's suffrage was granted. And again when UN and Nato were formed.
I would rather be in Normandy this Memorial Day. I could be with the spirit of true patriots who put their allegiance to our country above their own selfish interests. It’s hard to believe our country has been destroyed by the minority.
“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.” - H.L. Mencken
Patriotism feels like nostalgia to me now. There was a time, not so long ago, when I felt like no matter their personal foibles the people in our government had the best interests of the nation and its citizens in mind when they acted. The pain I feel from the actions of this regime has revealed to me how much I love(d) my country, and for that I am paradoxically grateful. To quote Joni Mitchell, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
We were in Missouri last week cleaning out my sister-in-law’s (wife’s sister’s) house. We brought back her husband’s things: his flag, his medals, letters from him and from the army, and the red wrapping in which his ashes were carried.
He died in Nam a few weeks before his enlistment ran out. As a short-timer, he was limited to base in those last days. But he was a restless kid, immature. He got drunk, stole a jeep, and drove around the base making trouble. As punishment, he was sent out to load wounded onto helicopters. That’s where and how he died, shot by a sniper.
I never knew him. She hardly knew him. They were together as husband and wife only a few days. She became active in Gold Star Wives and in Missouri NOW. She poured her life into activism. She was headstrong. Like Butch, her husband.
Patriotism is what they did and who they were.
Patriotism now is bringing these things to our house, into her family, as sacred artifacts, sacred memories. Irrespective of who he was, who she was. This is patriotism now.
For many Americans, patriotism now feels less like pride and more like complicity. How can one revere a nation whose leadership gleefully mocks the rule of law, degrades democratic norms, and treats truth as disposable?
What was once framed as civic virtue increasingly looks like willful blindness -- waving flags while institutions rot in plain sight.
When corruption is normalized, cruelty is excused, and constitutional principles are invoked selectively or ignored outright, patriotism begins to resemble denial rather than devotion.
The real embarrassment is not that Americans feel less patriotic. It is that so many still pretend.
I remember the 200th bicentennial. The nation was so proud and excited. Before this year patriotism meant a lot to me. From WWI until Iraq someone in my family served in the military. I have read there are Christian nationalists in the military which goes against everything the military represents. I don’t see any reason to celebrate this year.
I remember 200. I was in Washington DC with my friend’s family to watch the fireworks when a severe thunderstorm hit the District. We got under a plastic tablecloth we were sitting on until the storm passed. The feeling was electric, pun intended. It was a great time.
I’m sure it was. When my daughter was in the army as a nurse she was stationed at Walter Reed. She and her friends went to National Memorial Day Concert and she said it was fun and exciting.
I remember 200, watching Walter Cronkite narrate the celebration and the tall ships. I recall thinking what a an inspiring job he did, and felt a lot of pride in our nation.
One of my jobs was to respectfully bring in the American flag every evening. Also, I had a horse and was recruited to be Paul Revere for our local festivities. It was a joyous summer.
Now, I do not fly a flag, and it makes me sad to think that the reason why is because I do not support the evil, lawless regime that has taken over our national spirit, and don't want to be thought as sympathetic to it.
It angers and saddens me that this cruel, hateful minority has usurped the flag and the word "patriot". It has done the same with its false identities of the party of "law and order" and of "family values", all while demonizing Democrats, liberals, and anyone who exhibits empathy or kindness.
I do carry a flag with my signs at protests, but I no longer feel pride in the spiteful, petty, and mean country that has revealed itself. The first term of this small man was bad enough. The fact that he was put into office a second time shows that the ugly underbelly of the US was a stronger, more insidious factor than I had wanted to believe. That, in turn, has revealed to me the extent of privilege that I have enjoyed thus far, and how much I myself need to grow.
So, while this has been a particularly unsettling time in our history, it can and will, I hope, give us incentive to work to improve. THAT is what real patriots do. I know that is what *I* need to do.
No one will ever convince me that Trump was put into office a second time. Elon stole the election and Trump acknowledged by saying Elon knows computers really well in Pennsylvania. I too dislike how they have stolen the concept of the flag and patriotism. I have always felt pride for our country but no more.
For me, as a third generation US born citizen, patriotism was taught and modeled by my grandparents. It still means being a good citizen: obeying the law, voting, paying state and federal taxes, supporting local public schools, caring for my community (people, nature, property) and being a steward of the planet. It means being informed, supporting the sound policies and functions that serve the people and critiquing those that do not. At this time, it also means actively engaging in non-violent resistance to dictatorship. All that rah-rah stuff about the flag long ago sank into secular idolatry.
Honestly, it doesn’t mean much anymore. I’m ashamed of what our country (both federal government and many citizens) seem to think is important. “Might makes right” and the money and accompanying power that has corrupted our collective mentality is hideous. There is no longer even a feigned attempt to appear to be “the good guys “. In the interest of transparency I have never been a flag waving “my country right or wrong” person. I was, however, a Republican who believed the US was inherently good and the best place to live. Now neither of those facts apply.
We cannot celebrate the 4th of July activities this year under this corrupt president and his administration. The conflation of his birthday (UFC fights on WH lawn?), and his vanity projects (an arch, painting the reflecting pool, etc.) disguised as the celebration of our 250th birthday…there is no respect, dignity or reflection. This is Trump’s personalization of any celebration of our country’s independence, something he is trying to destroy. His authoritarian lawlessness and disregard of our freedoms/liberties cannot be ignored. We should be in the house of mourning this year, not in a house of joy.
I agree with you. My husband and I will be out of the country for the ridiculous UFC spectacle so we won’t be sickened by it. I have very conflicted emotions about July 4. My town holds the largest Independence Day parade in Northern California. I don’t often go, but when I have, there is a great feeling of civic pride and comradery . I almost feel that any show of patriotism this year means an allegiance to the corruption of Trump rather than to the country. I hate that he’s made me practically root against the United States.
I'm a Chicagoan. After the Highland Park shooting, I have a hard time celebrating the 4th. It's also hard to celebrate if you really think about how our country was founded based on the genocide of the Indigenous peoples.
Yesterday I stumbled upon a revolutionary war ancestor on my dad’s side. His name was George Calvert and he was next in line to be Lord Baltimore. Instead he gave up his position to become a revolutionary soldier in Virginia. If you find the name Hamrick in your ancestry you may also be related to him. This discovery seemed like a harbinger of something good for our future.
Patriotism is speaking truth to power; speak up and be clear about the illegal things the rogue presidency is doing with support of the Republican congress and corrupt 6/9 of SCOTUS. Tell states to arrest indict, convict any federal employee breaking laws in states unaligned with the coup d' etat and put the offenders in prison. Boycotting the corporations supporting the fascist mafia maladministration is patriot. We need to build new systems without the colonizing oligarchs and their police state surveilance.
I still love America, I just have a hard time loving what America is becoming. I know things will turn around ( please they have to, please) and when they do i will be standing proud of my country again. It is a little hard right now. As for the meaning of memorial day, I stand proudly with the men and women of the armed services past and present and am grateful to them for the sacrifices, ultimate and otherwise that they make and have made since the inception of this great holiday. Im actually getting a little emotional typing this. God bless America! We need it right now.
From the Conversation indicating patriotism dies in darkness as does democtacy. Last night, CBS News Radio went dark after nearly 100 years on the air.
The shuttering of the venerable media institution speaks to just how much the information landscape has changed in the internet age. Audience fragmentation and more news sources are not, on their face, a dangerous development. But when coupled with deregulation, corporate consolidation and the weakening of public interest requirements, these shifts don’t bode well for democratic deliberation and civic life, writes Penn State media scholar Matthew Jordan.
And i'd add the US turned into precisely what it rebelled against in 1776 and in 1860 and again when women's suffrage was granted. And again when UN and Nato were formed.
I would rather be in Normandy this Memorial Day. I could be with the spirit of true patriots who put their allegiance to our country above their own selfish interests. It’s hard to believe our country has been destroyed by the minority.
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."
-- Mark Twain 🗽 ⚖️. 🇺🇸
Good one.
Couldn’t agree more!
“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.” - H.L. Mencken
Good one, Al. Plenty of wisdom from Mencken.
He’s definitely having another moment.
Patriotism feels like nostalgia to me now. There was a time, not so long ago, when I felt like no matter their personal foibles the people in our government had the best interests of the nation and its citizens in mind when they acted. The pain I feel from the actions of this regime has revealed to me how much I love(d) my country, and for that I am paradoxically grateful. To quote Joni Mitchell, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
I hear you, Susan.
We were in Missouri last week cleaning out my sister-in-law’s (wife’s sister’s) house. We brought back her husband’s things: his flag, his medals, letters from him and from the army, and the red wrapping in which his ashes were carried.
He died in Nam a few weeks before his enlistment ran out. As a short-timer, he was limited to base in those last days. But he was a restless kid, immature. He got drunk, stole a jeep, and drove around the base making trouble. As punishment, he was sent out to load wounded onto helicopters. That’s where and how he died, shot by a sniper.
I never knew him. She hardly knew him. They were together as husband and wife only a few days. She became active in Gold Star Wives and in Missouri NOW. She poured her life into activism. She was headstrong. Like Butch, her husband.
Patriotism is what they did and who they were.
Patriotism now is bringing these things to our house, into her family, as sacred artifacts, sacred memories. Irrespective of who he was, who she was. This is patriotism now.
For many Americans, patriotism now feels less like pride and more like complicity. How can one revere a nation whose leadership gleefully mocks the rule of law, degrades democratic norms, and treats truth as disposable?
What was once framed as civic virtue increasingly looks like willful blindness -- waving flags while institutions rot in plain sight.
When corruption is normalized, cruelty is excused, and constitutional principles are invoked selectively or ignored outright, patriotism begins to resemble denial rather than devotion.
The real embarrassment is not that Americans feel less patriotic. It is that so many still pretend.
I remember the 200th bicentennial. The nation was so proud and excited. Before this year patriotism meant a lot to me. From WWI until Iraq someone in my family served in the military. I have read there are Christian nationalists in the military which goes against everything the military represents. I don’t see any reason to celebrate this year.
I remember 200. I was in Washington DC with my friend’s family to watch the fireworks when a severe thunderstorm hit the District. We got under a plastic tablecloth we were sitting on until the storm passed. The feeling was electric, pun intended. It was a great time.
I’m sure it was. When my daughter was in the army as a nurse she was stationed at Walter Reed. She and her friends went to National Memorial Day Concert and she said it was fun and exciting.
I remember 200, watching Walter Cronkite narrate the celebration and the tall ships. I recall thinking what a an inspiring job he did, and felt a lot of pride in our nation.
One of my jobs was to respectfully bring in the American flag every evening. Also, I had a horse and was recruited to be Paul Revere for our local festivities. It was a joyous summer.
Now, I do not fly a flag, and it makes me sad to think that the reason why is because I do not support the evil, lawless regime that has taken over our national spirit, and don't want to be thought as sympathetic to it.
It angers and saddens me that this cruel, hateful minority has usurped the flag and the word "patriot". It has done the same with its false identities of the party of "law and order" and of "family values", all while demonizing Democrats, liberals, and anyone who exhibits empathy or kindness.
I do carry a flag with my signs at protests, but I no longer feel pride in the spiteful, petty, and mean country that has revealed itself. The first term of this small man was bad enough. The fact that he was put into office a second time shows that the ugly underbelly of the US was a stronger, more insidious factor than I had wanted to believe. That, in turn, has revealed to me the extent of privilege that I have enjoyed thus far, and how much I myself need to grow.
So, while this has been a particularly unsettling time in our history, it can and will, I hope, give us incentive to work to improve. THAT is what real patriots do. I know that is what *I* need to do.
No one will ever convince me that Trump was put into office a second time. Elon stole the election and Trump acknowledged by saying Elon knows computers really well in Pennsylvania. I too dislike how they have stolen the concept of the flag and patriotism. I have always felt pride for our country but no more.
For me, as a third generation US born citizen, patriotism was taught and modeled by my grandparents. It still means being a good citizen: obeying the law, voting, paying state and federal taxes, supporting local public schools, caring for my community (people, nature, property) and being a steward of the planet. It means being informed, supporting the sound policies and functions that serve the people and critiquing those that do not. At this time, it also means actively engaging in non-violent resistance to dictatorship. All that rah-rah stuff about the flag long ago sank into secular idolatry.
Honestly, it doesn’t mean much anymore. I’m ashamed of what our country (both federal government and many citizens) seem to think is important. “Might makes right” and the money and accompanying power that has corrupted our collective mentality is hideous. There is no longer even a feigned attempt to appear to be “the good guys “. In the interest of transparency I have never been a flag waving “my country right or wrong” person. I was, however, a Republican who believed the US was inherently good and the best place to live. Now neither of those facts apply.
I’m a Democrat and feel the same
We cannot celebrate the 4th of July activities this year under this corrupt president and his administration. The conflation of his birthday (UFC fights on WH lawn?), and his vanity projects (an arch, painting the reflecting pool, etc.) disguised as the celebration of our 250th birthday…there is no respect, dignity or reflection. This is Trump’s personalization of any celebration of our country’s independence, something he is trying to destroy. His authoritarian lawlessness and disregard of our freedoms/liberties cannot be ignored. We should be in the house of mourning this year, not in a house of joy.
NOT IN OUR NAME.
I agree with you. My husband and I will be out of the country for the ridiculous UFC spectacle so we won’t be sickened by it. I have very conflicted emotions about July 4. My town holds the largest Independence Day parade in Northern California. I don’t often go, but when I have, there is a great feeling of civic pride and comradery . I almost feel that any show of patriotism this year means an allegiance to the corruption of Trump rather than to the country. I hate that he’s made me practically root against the United States.
The promise of America…and then there’s the degradation of Trump’s America.
I'm a Chicagoan. After the Highland Park shooting, I have a hard time celebrating the 4th. It's also hard to celebrate if you really think about how our country was founded based on the genocide of the Indigenous peoples.
I definitely will NOT watch such vanity projects. So opposite of the unity a nation should feel on this special anniversary.
Yesterday I stumbled upon a revolutionary war ancestor on my dad’s side. His name was George Calvert and he was next in line to be Lord Baltimore. Instead he gave up his position to become a revolutionary soldier in Virginia. If you find the name Hamrick in your ancestry you may also be related to him. This discovery seemed like a harbinger of something good for our future.
I don’t normally do this, but for me the time has come to speak out. So…I wrote this poem about that very elusive thing…patriotism.
I AM AN AMERICAN
I was a lover of dreams of that flag flying unfurled
Those Stars and Stripes lived so deep
Inside me
That they were
Welded
To my ‘realest’ self
Of forever after
Undisturbed
Immovable.
Now again there is terrible fear
In my country
A monster is lurking
In the highest faces
In the lowest places
Demons who dump
Lies
Now
The tears of pride I have shed
Over the national anthem or
“America the Beautiful” or
“This is My Country”
Are tears of grief.
That Sousa march
A patriotic staple
Has not been restocked
Even as I reach for a fresh supply
To gladden my heart.
Nothing feels American anymore
Not hot dogs
Nor fireworks on the Fourth of July
Not picnics
Not even baseball.
There are no heroes
Only disguises
No one smiles
With their eyes
Sadness
Suspicion
Drip from every pore
The streets are freshly paved with
The blackest of conspiracies
Sidewalks permanently stained
With public fury
Oozing from every crevice in the concrete
Oddly worn by worry and woe
Crowding out any chance of
Confidently competing
With Corruption’s chorus
“Shame!”
We shout
But Shame shrugged
As it left its coat hanging in our closet.
I cannot stop
The creeping numbness
Of knowing that
None of what I believed is true
All of it
Is melting
Like the forever glaciers
All of it is
Heavily discounted
Like cheap goods
That no one wants
Because such ideas cannot work
At least I do not believe they can
Except in my dearest dreams of
A crackling fire and Christmas tree
And gifts all ‘round
Of snow and Robert Frost’s
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
And hot chocolate
And snowball fights,
Of glittering deer eyes peeking from behind trees
Of Peter Rabbit
And Jemima Puddleduck,
Of crisp gingham dresses in summer
And even crisper apples in autumn
Of dogwoods and honeysuckle
Of rosy faces flushed with shy secrets shared
Of swings and songs
Of breezes and berries…
Just because.
Then I awaken to
The terrible truth of all
That I thought was a nightmare
Of history
But is now a lived one
A wretched revival
But not for all of us
Every shade of humanity
That deserves it all
Just as I have dreamed it
Just as we all have dreamed it
For each other
Nevertheless
I now recognize as
No more than
No less than
An America wished for by
An American
That is now
Just a new wide world of
Wondering what if
And if not
What it all was for.
Ellen Deschatres
Patriotism is speaking truth to power; speak up and be clear about the illegal things the rogue presidency is doing with support of the Republican congress and corrupt 6/9 of SCOTUS. Tell states to arrest indict, convict any federal employee breaking laws in states unaligned with the coup d' etat and put the offenders in prison. Boycotting the corporations supporting the fascist mafia maladministration is patriot. We need to build new systems without the colonizing oligarchs and their police state surveilance.
I still love America, I just have a hard time loving what America is becoming. I know things will turn around ( please they have to, please) and when they do i will be standing proud of my country again. It is a little hard right now. As for the meaning of memorial day, I stand proudly with the men and women of the armed services past and present and am grateful to them for the sacrifices, ultimate and otherwise that they make and have made since the inception of this great holiday. Im actually getting a little emotional typing this. God bless America! We need it right now.
Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down
Crosby Stills Nash