The true meaning of patriotism is not the corrupt meanings Americans have heard from false super-patriots.
True American patriots refused to cower to the demeaning demand after 9/11 of then-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer that all Americans "need to watch what they say, watch what they do," lest their criticisms of President Bush give aid and comfort to U.S. enemies.
By rejecting such a heavy-handed attempt to muzzle dissent, patriotic Americans instead protect the indispensable liberties granted to free speech and free press under the First Amendment. Any effort by government to stifle criticism of its policies is a direct attack on the constitutional rights of Americans.
Patriotism goes beyond symbols and slogans and the willingness to go to war.
Since President Bush and Vice President Cheney took office, American democracy has been blighted and blemished by ruthless men and women seeking to reduce the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights to meaningless scraps of paper in the name of expanding the powers of the president and fighting terrorism.
In the process, constitutional rights of privacy and habeas corpus have been trashed. The nation has been taken to war. Unspeakable criminal methods have been legitimized by government—kidnapping, torture, use of secret foreign prisons, denial of legal counsel. Compounding misconduct in high places has been a calibrated program of lies, refusals to testify to Congress, "lost" e-mail evidence and hiring decisions that purged government of anyone not obedient to the White House.
In these dark days, however, some voices of protest and alarm were raised—and these truly are the patriots among us, practicing the spirit of founders of the United States who placed liberty and freedom above all else.
Patriotic voices also have been raised to restore the art of diplomacy and thus rebuild the noble worldwide American reputation as peacemaker, not war maker.
Patriots in politics place their country above and ahead of political parties and avoid the unseemly smears and slanders used to cripple a presidential candidate. Such tactics bring disrepute to the responsible political party and cheapen the entire election system.
Finally, callous government policies have abused average Americans. Jobs have been sent abroad. Home ownership has been threatened by rogue mortgage policies ignored by regulators. The environment is tainted by greenhouse gases and industrial poisons.
The country needs and deserves a new patriotism that genuinely is devoted to America and Americans and the noble standards the world once envied.
