Happy New Year! \u00a0Welcome to 2016! \u00a0Let’s get some great writing done this year.<\/p>\n
Before I get back to working on fiction, I want to take a moment to talk about patriotism. \u00a0I don’t want to get too much into politics. \u00a0I just want to get some thoughts about America out of my heart and mind before my chest bursts.<\/p>\n
For starters, I don’t know if anyone else would consider me patriotic. \u00a0I have a few idiosyncrasies which separate me from what comes to mind when imagining an\u00a0American patriot. \u00a0For example, I don’t like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n
“But Brian!” exclaimed Strawman Number One. “Why not? \u00a0Are you some kind of Communist scum?”<\/p>\n
“Is it because of the ‘under God’ part?” asked Strawman Number Two.<\/p>\n
No, it’s neither of those things. \u00a0It’s actually much simpler than that. \u00a0There are two main reasons I don’t care to recite it.<\/p>\n
That’s it. \u00a0There are a couple of other reasons, but those are the main two. \u00a0Let’s break them down.<\/p>\n
Why should anyone pledge their allegiance to a flag? \u00a0If it were stated, “I pledge allegiance to the United States of America,” then I’d probably be okay with it. \u00a0But the flag? \u00a0What does that even mean? \u00a0If someone were to run down the street with Old Glory snapping and waiving on a stick above them, are those that pledged allegiance obligated to run behind? \u00a0It doesn’t make any sense to me.<\/p>\n
It makes me question the use of flags. \u00a0As I see it, the practical uses of a flag are to mark property or to distinguish armies from one another. \u00a0Everything beyond that is semi-mystical fiddle-faddle.<\/p>\n
As to the second reason, I joined the Air Force. \u00a0When I joined, I took an oath of enlistment. \u00a0Here are the words:<\/p>\n
“I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When I swore that oath, I did so without reservations, and without an expiration date. \u00a0As far as I’m concerned, I’m still under oath to support and defend the Constitution, and will be until either I’m dead, or there is nothing left to defend.<\/p>\n
So why should I pledge allegiance again?<\/p>\n
I don’t care for mindless rituals. \u00a0I’m very uncomfortable with the notion of mixing patriotism and faith or religion.<\/p>\n
As to the “under God” part? \u00a0I honestly don’t care. \u00a0In my opinion, if someone has a problem with that part of the pledge of the allegiance, they can just omit that part, or replace it with the name of their deity.<\/p>\n
But since I’ve spent so much time talking about the pledge of allegiance, let’s focus on a part of it that should make people concerned. \u00a0There is another word in the pledge that people should take much more seriously. \u00a0Here is the full pledge, with the word I’m talking about bolded for emphasis.<\/p>\n
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible<\/strong>, with liberty and justice for all.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Indivisible. \u00a0That is, “unable to be divided or separated.”<\/p>\n
Looking around our nation,\u00a0we are divided or separated on everything. \u00a0Partisanship is so prevalent that people aren’t listening to each other. \u00a0We are divided on matters of political affiliation, gender, race, sexual preference, geographical location, economic status… you name it, we are polarized about\u00a0it. \u00a0And from my perspective, it’s getting worse.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what to do about it. \u00a0I’ve spent a great deal of time in this post describing how I might not be considered a patriot, but here’s the simple truth: I love my country. \u00a0It’s my home. \u00a0I want to see it prosper. \u00a0I want everyone that chooses to live here to have life, liberty, health, and happiness.<\/p>\n
How can we make this a better place? \u00a0For starters, I think we should listen more than we talk. \u00a0When our president announced his plans for tightening gun laws, I think our first response should have been to listen carefully, and not immediately flee to social media to\u00a0post misinformed memes.<\/p>\n
We need more intelligent conversations, and less parroting of propaganda. \u00a0We need calm assertiveness more than we need frantic aggressiveness. \u00a0We need maturity and a willingness to compromise, not name calling and blind stubbornness.<\/p>\n
This is an election year. \u00a0Maybe the first step is to become informed. \u00a0Let’s look at what each candidate is actually saying, and what they’re doing, and not make quick decisions based on their gender, race, or socioeconomic status.<\/p>\n
And then,\u00a0once we’re informed, let’s be true patriots and vote our conscience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Happy New Year! \u00a0Welcome to 2016! \u00a0Let’s get some great writing done this year. Before I get back to working on fiction, I want to take a moment to talk about patriotism. \u00a0I don’t want to get too much into politics. \u00a0I just want to get some thoughts about America out of my heart and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":765,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions\/765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}