Iowa: Real patriotism for Americans, veterans

"duty... honor... country." — Patriotism is more than just an act

Statement by Senator Mike Gravel On this Independence Day as on any, we remember and appreciate the sacrifices of America's soldiers -- men and women, from the minutemen onward, who risked and in some cases gave their lives for our freedom.

This is especially fitting, of course, at a time such as the present, when America is in a state of war.

One of the great addresses on these matters comes from a military man -- general Douglass MacArthur, in his farewell address at West Point. MacArthur built his remarks around the three great ideals of "duty... honor... country." For anyone who has heard that address as recorded almost 40 years ago, those whispered words reach to the soul.

Duty, honor, country.

For devotion to duty, it is difficult, and unnecessary, to reflect any further than those who boldly proclaimed our independence to the world some 10 generations ago. "For the support of this declaration," they concluded, "with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Who were these 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Most were prosperous leaders in their community: landowners, businessmen, lawyers, other professionals.

Their pledge of life and fortune was not idle. Of those 56, five were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured. At least several lost their wives; still more, brothers or sisters.

A popular history often circulated this time of year records: "At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

"John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates."

These founders felt it was their duty not simply to issue commands, or give speeches -- but to join and share and commune in the country's great war for independence. They set a standard for all of us to consider and emulate today.

On every independence day, let us not fail to ask of our leaders, and ourselves, have made like sacrifices, and a similar commitment to duty.

Duty, honor, country.

Our founders, and our leaders since, have demonstrated a firm commitment to truth-telling. They do this even when -- no, they seem to do it especially when -- there may be some peril, or embarrassment, to themselves as a price of telling the truth.

Honor -- we have military leaders from Washington, who did not spare the continental congress from the facts about our tattered and ill-equipped armies, to General and later President Eisenhower, who in his farewell address warned of the dangers of the "military-industrial complex."

We have General Smedley Butler, who told America the of the awful carnage that took place on Armistice Day, 1918, to Billy Mitchell, willing to undergo conviction by court martial in order to dramatize the need for a true Air Force for America's defense.

Indeed, truth-tellers, of course -- men of great honor -- need not be limited to soldiers on duty. Recently, a group of us had dinner with Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, who in the 1970s went throughout the congress and the press in search of someone who would make public the record of U.S. involvement in Vietnam -- launching the "Pentagon Papers" controversy.

Let all Americans, in all acts of life and on all days -- but especially on Independence Day -- ask ourselves, are we mirroring this kind of fearless, selfless honor and honesty? Do we, like the men and women of 1776, dare to look power in the eye and say, "here is the truth"?

Duty, honor, country.

Today, we celebrate, or should, American Independence -- a great revolution which benefits all Americans today, and is, as Thomas Paine put it, the "hope of all mankind."

But what are we celebrating? What is the essence of this country that we are being patriotic about?

This is not an easy question to answer, because America is not an easy country. It is rich enough in its history, complex enough in its beauty, and in short, America is large enough, that a real love of America -- an authentic patriotism -- must be based on more than a moralizing grumph, a smug assertion, a bumper-sticker slogan.

We've all heard the phrase, "my country right or wrong." I think we can all agree, this leaves something to be desired. But allow me to say, on behalf of that much-tattered jingoism, that there is some element of truth in it, some redeeming part. Who among us, would not love our child, even if he or she had committed some wrong act?

No, I think a true patriotism -- a truly MacArthuresque love of country -- can leave some room for loving the sinner, but hating the sin.

But, by the same token, it is a patriotic sentiment to not merely tolerate, but to listen to, and celebrate, the critic among us, who says, "I love my country, but this practice is wrong." Or the doubter, who dares at least to wonder, "Is our might -- in this particular case -- being used for right?"

In that case, the American who calls a critic or doubter to task as un-American is -- himself -- in that instant, the true anti-patriot. It is the American who defends the right to disagree, and who hears and sees and embraces the voices of diversity, who is the truest and greatest lover of America.

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time," as Mark Twain put it -- "and your government, when it deserves it."

Patriotism isn't an act — it's actions

Real patriotism is not easy and it is not cheap. It never settles for the facile rantings of any particular class or partisan interest. Real patriotism is not fast or noisy -- but broad, and deep.

Today, as we honor these great virtues, these great ideals, let us not settle for a least-common-denominator. Let us not be easy on our love of America, but rigorous, self-critical, hard-working, brave and enterprising: in a word, American.