PATRIOTISM

 

                                                                 

I always thought I was a patriotic person. 

I loved to see the American flag flying on flagpoles all over our small town.  I had on display in my bedroom a miniature silk flag which had been a present from the crew when my family went on a cruise ship to Hawaii in 1951.  I could recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  I could sing “The Star Spangled Banner”, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, and “America the Beautiful”.   I loved to hear stories about the early colonists and their fight in the Revolutionary War to become a free nation.  I was particularly keen on the details about Francis Scott Key penning the words to “The Star Spangled Banner” after he saw the American flag still waving over Fort McHenry following an attack by the British one night during the War of 1812.  I was fascinated with the beautiful bursts of fireworks to celebrate July 4^th every year.  I had been to some historic places where American history was recounted and exhibited.  I was proud to be an American!

But…I had no idea what patriotism was until our little family moved to Virginia in 1979.  There we lived in the cradle of some of America’s most important history.  Every weekend, and usually one evening during the week, we would put the kids into the car and go to one of those famous historical sites.  One weekend about the middle of November we went to the Yorktown Victory center which had been built for the Nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.  In 1979 it was still an interactive exhibit with different displays recounting the varied contributions of countless men and women of many nationalities and races to America’s six-year struggle for freedom.

At the Victory Center we saw and heard the printer at the Tidewater Gazette as he discussed the vivid reports of the explosive situation in Boston.  Just a few steps away, a changing diorama recreated the tempestuous events of Boston in 1773 , the year of the “Tea Party”.

Then we entered an authentically reproduced copy of Washington’s campaign tent where the military events of the revolution unfolded before us in another life-sized diorama.  Following that, there were six other displays in chronological order as we walked down Liberty Street including a 12-foot tall reproduction of the Declaration of Independence.

The concluding display was a series of glass cases with historic artifacts and treasured objects on loan from private and state collections in America and other countries.  When the interactive button at each was pushed, there was a recording of what significance those objects had which led to the American victory on the nearby battlefield of Yorktown.

The very last glass case displayed simple objects like tin cups, buttons, utensils, and other personal items found on the battlefields themselves.  When I pushed the button to hear the background for this display, I was instantly brought to tears as a narrator read excerpts from letters by the soldiers themselves written home to families—mothers, and other loved ones—about  the deprivations of this war and what they encountered in battle.  There were words of pride and determination to prevail, but there were also yearnings for home and fear of the unknown.

Here, perhaps for the first time in my own personal life, the realities of hardship and sacrifice of the Revolutionary war were tangible things.  Freedom had not been free.  It had been hard won by young soldiers, and by everyone else who believed in the principles of freedom and liberty.

Perhaps my feelings that day were a bit more tender than normal because just five days before, a picture of two Iranians carrying garbage out of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran during the hostage crisis in that country flashed across TV screens all over the world.  And the garbage receptacle they were using?  It was the American flag!  I remember feeling assaulted personally and as a nation that day. 

So, when I saw re-creations at the Victory Center of the prices paid for that freedom and liberty in the United States, I was humbled and very grateful for that gift!  I later wrote in the family journal that our visit to Yorktown would remain one of the most moving experiences of my life.  It remains so to this day….

That day in November 1979, I learned that patriotism is a blend of knowledge, devotion, and loyalty.  Patriotism is vital to keeping the free FREE.  One writer said, “Patriotism brings citizens together in a common cause and builds stronger, more cohesive communities that unite a nation.”

In April 2021 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, President Dallin H. Oaks taught, “God has given His children moral agency—the power to decide and to act. The most desirable condition for the exercise of that agency is maximum freedom for men and women to act according to their individual choices.”

Take away agency and there is no freedom, no liberty.  And most definitely, they are NOT free.  These virtues need to be maintained with vigilance and accountability.

The survival and success of freedom and liberty are up to us.  I invite you—and me, too—to cultivate our personal patriotism in order to protect and defend the United States and to teach our children of the responsibility we each have to do that, as well.