The Highest Form of Patriotism
While coming into work the other day I passed by a car with a bumper sticker that read: “Dissent is The Highest Form of Patriotism,” which is a quote from Howard Zinn. While fundamentally I agree that the ability to take a stand in opposition to one in power takes courage and can demonstrate a real level of Patriotism, dissent alone does not make my top three list of highest forms of patriotism, especially in America. This statement taken at face value, to me is one of the most selfish statements one could make.
Here is how I would rank the top three acts of patriotism:
- Life: This is the ultimate act of Patriotism–to give my life that others may be free: free to live and free to dissent.
- Sacrife: The giving up of what I want now so that those of future generations may live better, safer lives.
- Citizenship: paying the price to know and understand our history and government, participating in an educated manner in the electoral process, and then giving our time in community/civic service.
To me all three of these trump “dissent” on the patriotism scale. In the US, to dissent with a president, governor or senator takes little or no effort and has little or no personal cost. It wasn’t the founders dissent over the way Britain treated the colonists that earned them the honored badge of “Patriot.” It was that they were willing to sacrifice “their lives, fortunes and sacred honor” (which many of them did) in efforts to dissent.
