July Fourth, and the nature of patriotism by Sarah Littman

published June 28, 2005

During the 15 years I lived abroad, the two holidays I missed most were Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. Why? Not just because they relate to the founding of our nation, but because it doesn't matter what your race, creed, color or religion; these are holidays for all.

On Thanksgiving, or usually the weekend after because the Brits

didn't have the courtesy to give us the day off, we ex-pat Yanks would gather to enjoy turkey, cranberry sauce and Pepperidge Farm stuffing smuggled in from the United States.

The Fourth was more problematic. Finding fireworks in July was impossible; I never remembered to buy them in November, when they were readily available for Guy Fawkes Day, and save them for the following summer.

Without fail, though, I'd don my "Proud to Be An American" T-shirt, and wear it about town. I'm not sure if people intentionally ignored my patriotic effort -- after all, losing the wealth of "The Colonies" was not a shining moment in British history -- or if they just didn't twig. But I'd get increasingly depressed as the day progressed without a single mention of its significance. I almost kissed the owner of a kitchenware store when he took a quizzical look at my T-shirt, then said with a smile, "Oh yes! Today's the day we got rid of you lot."

Now that I'm back Stateside, it's easy to find the stuffing, the Stars-and-Stripes paper goods and the fireworks, all at the appropriate time. It's virtually a no-brainer to celebrate. But given some of the mail I've been getting recently, accusing me of being unpatriotic and America-hating, endangering the troops, helping our enemies (never realized Osama was a Greenwich Time reader), being a "socialist" and various other transgressions, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what it means to be an American.

Is patriotism expressed by having a bigger American flag than your neighbor, sporting an American flag bumper sticker and living by the motto, "My country, right or wrong?" Or does it mean exercising our First Amendment right to an opinion? After all, isn't that the justification for the war in Iraq -- now that the weapons of mass destruction excuse has been disproved, that is -- to give the Iraqi people Democracy? So I ask my critics: Why do you support our servicemen and women dying overseas so that Iraqis can express their opinion, yet object to your fellow Americans doing it on the home front?

Does supporting the troops mean sticking a yellow ribbon on your car? Or does it mean calling to account a government that sent those troops into war with inadequate body armor? A government, that, as the Downing Street memo makes clear, viewed military action as "inevitable, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD" as early as July 2002? A leadership where "intelligence and facts were being fixed around [that] policy"?

How is it unpatriotic to take to task a government that puts the precious lives of its sons and daughters at risk based on politically influenced intelligence?

It's incredible that the same people who were baying for Clinton's impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal have the nerve to accuse me of being unpatriotic for criticizing this government, whose transgressions (leaking the name of an undercover CIA operative, "fixing" intelligence to take our troops into a war that, far from making us safer, has created a breeding ground for terrorists and stretched the military to the breaking point) are incomparably worse.

I get upset with my children when they do something wrong, but as I often reassure them that it

doesn't mean I love them any less. Such is it with the love for my country. I don't criticize what this government is doing because I hate this country. I do it precisely because I love it with a passion, because I am proud to be an American. As Thomas Jefferson observed: "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all."

Finally, I'd like to pass on the following from http://adoptaplatoon.org: "Because of the large number of deployed married troops asking for support, we are currently in desperate need of married supporters, families and grandparents to adopt our married U.S. soldiers ... by supporting our married troops, we also extend a helping hand to their families waiting here at home."

Wishing all my readers a happy Fourth of July.

Sarah Littman, who lives in Greenwich, is author of "Confessions of a Closet Catholic," published by Dutton Children's Books.