9/11: "Patriot Day"

There can be no doubt that the events of 9-11 fundamentally altered our world. Ideas of "security" changed, what are "natural and inalienable" rights are now subject to government whim, the Constitution is not just pushed aside and regarded as a humorous anecdote in our countries history as it had been since FDR, now it is not even held that highly.

Oh, sure, examples have been around for a long time. In the name of gun control we have swept aside the "inalienable right" that our right to bear arms "shall not be infringed upon". Saying I cannot own a certain type or purchase a particular weapon sounds suspiciously like it is "infringing" on my right to bear that particular arm....but after all, what is more important: my Constitutional rights or someones dislike of guns? Well, the answer is obvious...whatever will get more votes for a particular candidate.

Or how about the inalienable right to a fair and impartial jury? Or to not be held for an indeterminate amount of time? Or freedom of speech and of the press?

But here is the rub; the Bill of Rights, within which is found the "inalienable right" which has been alienated, was not a "new" set of laws. Let us delve for a moment into the historical antecedents of this document which is comically referred to as "The Supreme Law of the Land" and realistically referred to as the relic of a past age with no bearing in the court of public opinion which then overrules the so-called Supreme Law of the Land.

Despite recent rhetoric and revisionism, the Founding Fathers were very much believers in God both as actual Being and as Active Participant in human affairs. While some few of them had some Deist leanings and others, notably Thomas Paine, later moved towards agnosticism, at the time of the writing of both the Constitution itself and then the Articles to be voted on, those of which were to be accepted to become the Bill of Rights, were overwhelmingly believers in a vibrant God who had an interest in the actions of this nation.

With that in mind they looked not for things which were politically expedient to set before the nation but rather for things which were given to people by God Himself...it was God who made those rights "inalienable". For man to take away those rights was to cross the boundaries set up by God and would therefore intrinsically put the nation at risk.

Think about the implications of that; their belief was the first ten Amendments to the Constitution were rights given to people by God. Those rights are not, in fact, given by man...simply recognized as being the most basic rights God has given.

Which makes it even more disturbing when our government, whether in the hands of FDR, JFK, Nixon, Clinton, or Bush, eviscerates and alienates those rights in the name of political gain.

So on Patriot Day, perhaps we should examine what is the true meaning of being a patriot.

–noun
1.
a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.
2.
a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.

All right. Sounds good enough. A person should love their country and its interests. The second definition is a bit less used...but perhaps they coincide more than we would like to believe.

Let's take a look at the controversial Iraq War, for example. First off, if it is indeed a war...and from where I sit, with army maneuvers, battles, etc. it certainly has all the earmarks of a war...then the U.S. has entered it illegally from the standpoint of our own laws. There was a careful separation of powers instituted in our government. The President is the executor and only the executor of the laws. The power to make war was expressly and explicitly given to Congress and only to Congress and that was done for a reason. Of course, ever since Thomas Jefferson Presidents have been violating that precision through clever maneuvering..."Uh, it isn't a war...we are advisers." "It is a police action." Or the ever popular "I never ordered it". So in Bush's defense, he is not the first President to ignore that little proviso...for that matter, he isn't even the first of the 90s...remember Clinton and Bosnia? He is, however, the most recent. And with, it appears, the longest lasting repercussions.

So if a person believes this is a more egregious breach of duty than that of previous Presidents, what is his patriotic duty?

Conversely, if a person believes the war is justified and right, what is his patriotic duty?

What if a person believes the interests of the country exceed the strictures of law?

Patriotism does not mean blindly falling into line. It is entirely possible for people on diametrically opposed sides of an issue to both be functioning as patriots. And there is the real irony...so many people fail to appreciate that fact.

Our nation has a relative short history but even in that time it is filled with examples of stupendously heroic acts and those should be celebrated. Sadly, it is also filled with mistakes and immoral actions, many of which resulted in the country we have today...most of them dealing with our interactions with, in no particular order, indigenous peoples, Mexico, and Spain.

How does a patriot react to that? What are the interests of our nation? Are the primarily financial, land-based, or in the more abstract realm of morals? If we see what we believe to be an unjust law or direction to the moral codes of the people, should a patriot stand by and say nothing? Or should they be a squeaky wheel?

Here is one that everybody who reads this and does not get what I am saying will disagree with: Larry Flynt, Hugh Hefner, Pat Robertson, Bill McCartney, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Moore, Hillary Clinton, and George W. Bush are all equally patriotic.

I don't agree with a single one of them on what they are trying to do...but just because my vision for the country does not dovetail particularly well with their vision does not invalidate their vision. They have the right to be wrong :-)

So on Patriot Day, I guess this is a call to all of us to act as Patriots. To Find a vision for this country and work to make it real, whatever that vision may be.