The 4th of July is next week, when easy patriotism is on full display across these United States. And as has happened before, the “united” part of the United States is again highly strained. It’s easy to display flags, sing patriotic songs, shoot fireworks and say America is the greatest.
In many very real ways the United States is the greatest country to have existed. But, that greatness is is result of people who did the hard, exhausting and exasperating work to move us to closer to the ideal set forth in the “Declaration of Independence” that we are all entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That same ideal also pops up in the Constitution with that nagging forming “a more perfect union” thing.
Those ideals are the hard work of hard patriotism.
And hard patriotism forces hard questions: “Are others struggling for the same kind of rights that I easily enjoy? Are others unfairly targeted for who or what they are to score political points? Do others have the same access to opportunities that I have?” Depending on the answers, there is more hard work to be done.
Think of it this way, our obligation to this country is to always first protect the high ideals that it represents before enjoying the benefits of those values ourselves.
That’s patriotism.
