Pat Dollard | Young Americans

I really am beyond making fun of this bullshit …

BTW, I find it hard to believe his mother actually read the first lines of the Declaration of Independence to him while living abroad … More likely she read cover to cover The Communist Manifesto to him.

by John McCormick (The Swamp)

Sen. Barack Obama provided his definition of patriotism today, while also seeking to inoculate himself from Republican attacks regarding his lack of military service, complex biography and past incidents that have generated questions about his national devotion.

“It’s worth considering the meaning of patriotism because the question of who is - or is not - a patriot all too often poisons our political debates, in ways that divide us rather than bringing us together,” Obama said in a speech at the Truman Memorial Building in Independence, Mo.

“Throughout my life, I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country as a given. It was how I was raised; it is what propelled me into public service; it is why I am running for President,” he said. “Yet, at certain times over the last 16 months, I have found, for the first time, my patriotism challenged - at times as a result of my own carelessness, more often as a result of the desire by some to score political points and raise fears and doubts about who I am and what I stand for.”

It was a topic explored in a story in Monday’s Tribune, setting up a week where Obama is expected to continue on a theme of patriotism in advance of Friday’s 4th of July holiday.

As part of his speech, Obama pledged to “never question the patriotism of others in this campaign” and that he will “not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.”

The Illinois Democrat then offered several of his life experiences that he said defined feelings of patriotism for him.

“One of my earliest memories is of sitting on my grandfather’s shoulders and watching the astronauts come to shore in Hawaii. I remember the cheers and small flags that people waved, and my grandfather explaining how we Americans could do anything we set our minds to do. That’s my idea of America,” he said.

“I remember listening to my grandmother telling stories about her work on a bomber assembly-line during World War II. I remember my grandfather handing me his dog tags from his time in Patton’s Army, and understanding that his defense of this country marked one of his greatest sources of pride. That’s my idea of America,” he said.

“I remember, when living for four years in Indonesia as a child, I listened to my mother reading me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they’re endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I remember her explaining how this declaration applied to every American, black and white and brown alike; how those words, and words of the United States Constitution, protected us from the injustices that we witnessed other people suffering during those years abroad. That’s my idea of America,” he said.

As he grew older, Obama said he gain a greater awareness for the “nation’s imperfections,” but that he came to believe that what makes the nation remarkable is its belief that it can constantly be made better.

“For a young man like me of mixed race, without firm anchor in any particular community, without even a father’s steadying hand, it is this essential American idea - that we are not constrained by the accident of birth but can make of our lives what we will - that has defined my life, just as it has defined the life of so many other Americans,” he said.

Obama cited Mark Twain, a “proud son of Missouri,” in making his point that challenging the government can be an act of devotion to the country. “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it,” he said, quoting the writer.

“The young preacher from Georgia, Martin Luther King, Jr., who led a movement to help America confront our tragic history of racial injustice and live up to the meaning of our creed - he was a patriot,” Obama said. “The young soldier who first spoke about the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib - he is a patriot.”

Obama also called for greater public service as a mark of patriotism, something he said has been a failure of the current administration.

“For the rest of us - for those of us not in uniform or without loved ones in the military - the call to sacrifice for the country’s greater good remains an imperative of citizenship,” he said. “Sadly, in recent years, in the midst of war on two fronts, this call to service never came. After 9/11, we were asked to shop. The wealthiest among us saw their tax obligations decline…even as the costs of war continued to mount. Rather than work together to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and thereby lessen our vulnerability to a volatile region, our energy policy remained unchanged, and our oil dependence only grew.”

Ultimately, though, Obama said patriotism must come from the heart.

“We must remember, though, that true patriotism cannot be forced or legislated with a mere set of government programs,” he said. “Instead, it must reside in the hearts of our people, and cultivated in the heart of our culture, and nurtured in the hearts of our children.”