Loving America
During the Super Bowl a commercial came on with This Land Is Your Land playing as the background music.
My beautiful wife sang along.
(You haven't lived until you've heard my wife sing along - think, Edith Bunker).
Anywhoha...
I said:
"Beautiful commercial, but this is actually a protest song."
My wife looked at me strangely. Obviously the lyrics and the beautiful photos they were showing don't bring up thoughts of protest, but that certainly was the inspiration for the song written by Woody Guthrie.
Can someone love the country and yet speak critically of something that we, as a country, have done?
You don't actually believe that the United States has never done anything questionable, do you?
I guess that the answer to those two questions kind of brings a whole lot about this past week to light.
How do you love America?
Exactly like Rudy Guiliani does?
Or more like Woody Guthrie did?
Does a rock star, a folk star, or a Hollywood star actually hate the country if he or she speaks out about something that may not be right?
Are politicians dirt bags if they sympathize with another nation?
Is it are you 'with us or against us'?
Back during the Viet Nam years there was the term 'conscientious objector.'
People gathered and assembled and protested.
Other people hated them for it.
Three minute commercials showing the mountains, the fields of grain, a Ford truck, and a barbecue certainly highlights everything nicely...but what if the backdrop to the Woody commercial was different?
Drone strikes...corporate greed...real images of war...mind-numbing poverty...drugs...and murder after murder after murder.
I don't believe that people who take a stand against something are bad Americans.
In fact, the idea that we can complain and piss and moan and whine is exactly what is best about the country. We have a collective voice that sort of keeps things in check.
Those in power know what the people of this country believe.
But they don't always rule in context of those beliefs.
If you believe that they do...good for you...blind faith is comfortable...but they don't.
My boys posed the question to me the other day:
"Why do the people of ISIS hate us so much?"
"Millions and millions of reasons," I said. "Through the years millions of their people have died in wars with America."
"But we were right to fight them," Jake said.
"Maybe," I answered. "But they feel differently."
And in those four words perhaps there is room for the protests, the conscientious objector, and the wavering feelings of patriotism:
But they feel differently.
America is about the differences.
A huge cauldron of different ideas, philosophies, loves and dislikes.
The inability to appreciate the differences in thought is what will cause the breakdown someday.
There's plenty of room for American pride.
I hope we all feel it in healthy levels.
I pray that we all continue to have reason to feel so great about our nation.
But not acknowledging what Woody Guthrie was protesting about when he wrote that beautiful song...
...is really short-sighted.
Here's a verse you may not have heard:
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people
By the relief office I seen my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking that freedom highway
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
Woody Guthrie.
My beautiful wife sang along.
(You haven't lived until you've heard my wife sing along - think, Edith Bunker).
Anywhoha...
I said:
"Beautiful commercial, but this is actually a protest song."
My wife looked at me strangely. Obviously the lyrics and the beautiful photos they were showing don't bring up thoughts of protest, but that certainly was the inspiration for the song written by Woody Guthrie.
Can someone love the country and yet speak critically of something that we, as a country, have done?
You don't actually believe that the United States has never done anything questionable, do you?
I guess that the answer to those two questions kind of brings a whole lot about this past week to light.
How do you love America?
Exactly like Rudy Guiliani does?
Or more like Woody Guthrie did?
Does a rock star, a folk star, or a Hollywood star actually hate the country if he or she speaks out about something that may not be right?
Are politicians dirt bags if they sympathize with another nation?
Is it are you 'with us or against us'?
Back during the Viet Nam years there was the term 'conscientious objector.'
People gathered and assembled and protested.
Other people hated them for it.
Three minute commercials showing the mountains, the fields of grain, a Ford truck, and a barbecue certainly highlights everything nicely...but what if the backdrop to the Woody commercial was different?
Drone strikes...corporate greed...real images of war...mind-numbing poverty...drugs...and murder after murder after murder.
I don't believe that people who take a stand against something are bad Americans.
In fact, the idea that we can complain and piss and moan and whine is exactly what is best about the country. We have a collective voice that sort of keeps things in check.
Those in power know what the people of this country believe.
But they don't always rule in context of those beliefs.
If you believe that they do...good for you...blind faith is comfortable...but they don't.
My boys posed the question to me the other day:
"Why do the people of ISIS hate us so much?"
"Millions and millions of reasons," I said. "Through the years millions of their people have died in wars with America."
"But we were right to fight them," Jake said.
"Maybe," I answered. "But they feel differently."
And in those four words perhaps there is room for the protests, the conscientious objector, and the wavering feelings of patriotism:
But they feel differently.
America is about the differences.
A huge cauldron of different ideas, philosophies, loves and dislikes.
The inability to appreciate the differences in thought is what will cause the breakdown someday.
There's plenty of room for American pride.
I hope we all feel it in healthy levels.
I pray that we all continue to have reason to feel so great about our nation.
But not acknowledging what Woody Guthrie was protesting about when he wrote that beautiful song...
...is really short-sighted.
Here's a verse you may not have heard:
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people
By the relief office I seen my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking that freedom highway
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
Woody Guthrie.
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