Lewis A. Fein
http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- CAN you cite America's fair-weathered fans, people for whom enormous tragedy is now another opportunity to make a fashion statement? No, these individuals are neither French (not even remotely pro-American) nor Muslim (John Walker Lindh notwithstanding). Rather, these individuals are countless celebrities, as well as their court assistants and tailors, that now wear - because the blood count is sufficiently high and dissent remarkably low - hats and T-shirts bearing the insignia FDNY, property of the New York City Fire Department.
This brand of pastel patriotism, where liberals reluctantly hang Old Glory (no doubt accessorized by paraphernalia from, or upon the illustrated guidance of, Martha Stewart), is insulting for several reasons. First, patriotism is not about convenience - about the ability to simultaneously embrace or shirk national pride. For patriotism is not a seasonal affair, closeted against mothballs and sealed from wrinkles.
Patriotism is about support for one's country before it is popular or even necessary. In fact, it is easier to describe what patriotism is not than what it most certainly is. Patriotism is not about self-disguise, where American college students - either because they themselves hate the United States or their own twisted logic demands compliance - affix miniature Canadian flags upon their luggage; thus reassuring their French, Egyptian or Ecuadorian hosts that indeed, appearances and accents to the contrary, benign guests beseech them.
Nor is patriotism about personal advancement. Patriotism is also not about mistaking dress for decorum, as if a priest is simply holy because of his collar or a fireman brave because of his helmet. Again, patriotism is not about those convenient displays of solidarity, where FDNY is a synonym for DKNY.
Second, patriotism is about consistent support - not Hollywood's brand of qualified unity, alternating between contempt for President George W. Bush and amnesia; the kind of wholesale oblivion that relegates this year's patriotic clothing beside last year's snakeskin shoes. Yet once patriotism becomes another form of Hollywood fashion national pride weakens: the flags and bunting - the banners, streamers and confetti - become props within cinema's attic, hidden by some and forgotten by all.
Third, patriotism is about the firemen that perished this past September. These individuals represent trust - trust in the hard but honorable duties of life. These individuals - these heroes, these men - know and live a different world. They know little about convertible securities, golden parachutes or negotiable instruments. They know little about contractual obligations or fiduciary responsibilities, the kind of legalese that obscures one's plainspoken duty - to rescue innocents against the arsonist's hell or the terrorist's anarchy.
Fourth, patriotism is about September's widows, women that silently accept a folded flag or absorb the bugle's mournful call. These women also trust in the hard world. It is a world that, though painfully cruel at times, nonetheless blesses its most honorable citizens (however briefly) with something Hollywood cannot manufacture and the nation's political class dare not fabricate: love.
These women live difficult lives, explaining death to children and seeking spiritual guidance from a recently murdered spouse. These women live within two worlds, where bills accumulate and a husband's picture - smiling with his children or embracing his newly married wife - graces a piano or adorns a wall, among the departed but forever remembered heroes of one's family.
Patriotism is not a convenient fashion statement. It is a solemn responsibility, bought with blood and honored by silence. It is the legacy of more than a thousand soldiers, and the recent actions of more than a hundred firemen. It is the response of freedom.
It is not for sale,
JWR contributor Lewis A. Fein is a writer and Internet entrepreneur in Los Angeles.Comment by clicking here.
