Bar-B-Que Utopia (in honor of July 4)
(Written with Steve Lambert.)
“The Good Life” was the mantra of the United States in the 1950s. The country had emerged from a devastating economic depression and brutal world war into a era of seemingly unbounded plenty. The economy was in high gear from the war: there were new products for well paid workers to consume as factories switched from military to civilian production. A suburban expansion was financed by the federal government. The Utopia promised -- and not delivered -- by intellectuals and political leaders in Europe, Asia and beyond throughout the late 19th and into the 20th centuries seemed to be almost within the average American’s reach.
Nothing symbolized “The Good Life” more than the backyard Bar-B-Que. A well kept backyard, a modern charcoal or propane fired grill, and bountiful processed food, along with family, friends and leisure all combined for an idyllic afternoon.
And yet, when seen in another light, there is plenty wrong with the American backyard Bar-B-Que. Public resources were channeled from healthcare, education and urban development to--quite literally--pave the way to individual home purchases in the suburbs. Burger smoke wafting into the air from a million backyards, each separated from theother by a picket fence, symbolized the atomization of the public, as around each grill a nuclear family--perhaps joined by a few close friends--acted out the bourgeois fantasy of self-sufficiency. And the Bar-B-Que does not stand alone, it is but one component in a an array of leisure activities that gobble up resources and pollute the planet; each hamburger flipped and chicken thigh basted makes an implicit argument in favor of an ecologically unsustainable lifestyle. Then there is sartorial travesty of leisure wear: grown men and women wearing clothes best suited for children at the playground: t-shirts, sneakers, and shorts or worse: track suits whose elastic waistbandexpands effortlessly to accommodate the ever-growing American girth.
But there is also a positive utopian dream at the heart of this crass, materialist travesty. The very form of the grills themselves bear witness to this dream: the domed flying saucers which transport the suburban backyard into a fantasy of the future; the sleek brushed steel grill which pays hommage to the modernist ideal of integrity of material more eloquently than Bauhaus or the Seagram’s building; or the tropical island motif common in the larger consoles that, like the later paintings of Paul Gauguin, conjure up nothing less than an ideal of human harmony with the natural world—a backyard Rousseauian idyllic. In each case the Bar-B-Que takes you away to some place other than where you are. It transports us to the Greek roots of the word Utopia: a magical “no-place” where race and class and gender divisions disappear, concrete dissolves into a plush lawn and work is a hazy Monday away.
As an ideal, the Bar-B-Que is remarkably egalitarian and multicultural, a symbol of a dream lost in the class, race and gender segregated society of the United States. While it is easy to stereotype the BBQ as a white, middle-class,suburban activity, Mexican-American working class families gather around the grill at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, New Yorquenos flip burgers in East River Park in New York City, and African-Americans roast chicken in the backyards of the Mississippi Delta. The very word barbecue derives from the word “barabicu”(meaning sacred fire pit) found in the language of the Taíno people of the Caribbean.
The archetypal man at the grill upsets the standard patriarchal conventions of the spheres of the sexes. Is marinating a steak for the Bar-B-Que preparing for the domestic or public world? Is a backyard grill outside, or inside? The sharp divisions of domestic vs. public and inside vs. outside which have characterized modern gender division don’t seem to hold for the world of the Bar-B-Que. In front of the grill man bonds with man, not over business or sport, but in the arts of familial nourishment and the sensually sublime pleasure of taste.
The Bar-B-Que also promises the dream of class egalitarianism. Smoke rises from grills from the slums of Detroit as it does from the gated communities of Orange County. No politician in the United States dares run for elected office without a photo-op at a grill. Indeed, when the king and queen of England came to visit this country on the eve of World War II, President Franklin D.Roosevelt invited them to his palatial estate where they were treated to grilled hotdogs. In a society like our own, dividing ever more rapidly into the haves and have-nots, the appeal of the Bar-B-Que may be one of the last places where the revolutionary Early American ideals of a democratic, classless society are actualized.
The phantasmagoric kernel of the Bar-B-Que is a dream of endless leisure. This revolutionary possibility of a world of leisure has been recognized – albeit in its non-Bar-B-Que form – by radical theorists like KarlMarx’s son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, who, in The Right to be Lazy, argued that any revolutionary movement needs to recognize that radical subjectivity has migrated from the work place to sites of leisure. Where other utopias have been ordered around the fantasy of non-alienated labor (Marxist) or a unified people (Fascist), the Bar-B-Que utopia is one where work and social regimentation are left behind. This is a space free from work in which one can dress as one pleases, be as one is, and, if one desires, take a nap on a hammock with beer in hand.
In their 1972 manifesto Learning from Las Vegas the architects Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour tried to reform the course of their professional practice and the relationship between builders and the people they built for. Venturi et. al argued that for far too long, architects designed as “Experts with Ideals…build[ing] for Man rather than for people.” Venturi and his colleagues wanted to change this, building for real people rater than abstract Man. In Las Vegas, flawed as it was, they glimpsed a model of this approach. Las Vegas was – is -- not a city planned and built by idealistic experts; it is a phantasmagoria constructed to appeal to everyday people’s desires.
The contours of the modern Bar-B-Que have, no doubt, been shaped by experts from above. Yet the Bar-B-Que can also be recognized as an organic vision of Utopia lovingly created, or perhaps dreamed, from below. The dreams of the ideal Bar-B-Que – seemingly alone among modern Utopias – has never lead to the gulag or a death camp. There has not been, nor do we believe there ever will be, a totalitarian state of Bar-B-Que. Abstract Man may want to collectivize farms or subject their will to the Fuhrer, but everyday people want to grill.
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- 7-3-08
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independence day
independence from what?
isn't interdependence day more realistic?
Nice.
I've never thought that much about Bar-B-Ques before -- thanks for saving me the effort! It was a fascinating breakdown of grillosophy. :)
And for the record, I'm all for the change to "Interdependence Day".
Love for all! Happy 4th!
A letter To My Family
It’s the Forth of July. I would like to just say that our family’s history in this country goes back all the way to French Indian War, and maybe before that where an Abenaki named Samoset said "welcome" to the pilgrims. Our history is where a man named Albert, a foot soldier with the French Army, landed in Quebec. And much of our history is part speculation and part fact but non-the-less it is rich and filled with wonder and heart-ache. In the end we have always been a great part of the common story that threads through the people of this great nation.
We have lost relatives in wars fighting to maintain our freedom and I believe we have in some way or another been a part of every conflict that has called us as a people to rise to a cause that has been greater to us. In the same sense we have protested, dodged conflict, stood in courtrooms for protesters, and argued counterpoints against the grains of majority rule or thought.
I’m proud of my family and her history on this day. And on this day I look around at what is becoming of my country, or more importantly what is becoming of her people. It is a thin thread that we now walk in freedom. Our rights are being taken away in the cause of a war on terrorism, and drugs, and other other bogus causes in which each and every one of us can be taken away with the mere swoop of a pen and in which habius corpus will be denied us.
We are losing our freedoms and all that it will take to loss all of them is a mere detonation of a bomb to implement martial law and we become mere pawns in the hands of the elite that wish to place further control on all we do as a people. Our freedoms are very much at risk at being denied us, even the right to habius corpus, the right to a fair trial are taken away. The constitution can be suspended in which our rights to speak out against the leaders of this country that we may feel are “in on it”.
And it is our right, more so our duty to keep our government from moving against the citizens of this nation. It is our right to fight against the corporate powers that also seek to make us mere pawns in their systems of abuse in which their merging within government has placed us all to now be called consumer (citizen isn’t in their vocabulary). Being a part of the court system lately opened me up to this when in a government building I had to stand under a sign that said consumer. And our watch against corporate abuse must become ten-fold, keep in mind that out of the hundred richest economies in the world fifty of them are corporations. Think about that when or if you even begin to think that they are not a threat to our rights as citizens of this nation.
Lately, I have been hearing of lists kept by the government. There are red list and blue list on people that may be deemed threats to the government of this nation. I believe that I am on one of them. I have no doubt. I don’t trust this government as far as I could throw Bill Clinton. In the end I am a patriot for the people of this nation and that is where, in the end, I will make my stand.
If you really look at what is going on today we can compare it to what happened to Germany in the 30’s. It didn’t happen overnight but only after a series of false flags. And we must remember that our government is not innocent when it comes to false flags. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin? Tonkin set into motion the Viet Nam War. We must all look at 9-11 and wonder how deep or if our own government knew beforehand what was about to happen to those towers and to building 7. They say a third of Americans now believe 9-11 was an inside job. That’s one out of every three people… count me in… and keep me in that third until a new investigation is made. The families of 9-11 are crying out for it and yet our major media outlets have swept them under the rug.
There is a video that just came out today. It’s called The Truth Chronicles and I would like to share it in the Spirit of Patriotism that question everything until there isn’t even a bone remaining to pick at. And before the video maybe a few quotes…
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
-- Thomas Paine --
"Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the
Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people?
They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man,
as snow before a summer sun.
"Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle,
give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the
graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you
will cry with me, 'Never! Never!'"
-- From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians --
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
-- Ben Franklin --
And the video… http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1035005710792153967&q=truth
And thank God for patriots… they gave us these Amendments… I’ll give you the first ten… remember it’s our job to do whatever it takes to keep them.
Bill of Rights
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
keep them?
cooking should be done outdoors in warm weather
Here we have something that
Here we have something that is to guarantee our rights as a people. What else do we have to ensure our rights? Is there a difference between being a patriot for the people themselves who have become mere pegs in a corrupt system that seeks to enslave the populace, and being a patriot that looks to empower our current corporate government’s current system of control? What else do we have to protect us from the forces of “Big Brother”?
Whoever or whatever this document came from it’s all we have. And in the past we have seen what can happen when our government abuses it’s authority. One does only have to look at the slave trade and the genocide against the American Indian. I do not want to see our own government which is the people themselves abusing their powers against any American born citizen.
This is a tipping point time and we are here trying to keep our freedoms, which allows ecolocal to write what he feels on this web site. What else is there ecolocal? How do we keep our free born rights as citizens of this nation in place? What is your answer? What else is there to keep whatever individual freedoms that we have?
And what do you mean by this, “By demanding rights you affirm the reality of the chiefs who are sitting on you granting and withholding rights , freedoms and duties…”. Please explain. And also you say, “Pride is a mindless male adolescent trait - and your downfall; patriotism an excuse for nationalism. Amerika is the adolescent ego that needs some tough lovin' to grow up...” What is the answer to the keep watch on nationalism out of control and/or the place we are headed now which is corporate run governments throughout the world? Should we humble ourselves to the almighty in Washington D.C. ? Or can we stand against them with a bit of pride about the love of individual freedoms of religion, speech, press, etc… What else do we have? What else is there?
We are at crossroad and who has the answer on which way to go? I'll humble myself to the people but to corruption of government or corporation? How can you ask me to do that? They'll roll over you and start the ovens up.
In the end we have or had checks and balances... as we speak they are being taken away... I don't believe the next tornado or earthquake is going change any of this. But if you have an answer besides natural disasters I'm open to it.
Here is another vid on the end of America as we know it... Naomi Wolfe... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5057555023195472231&q=naomi+wolfe&ei=VndvSKDlOpKc4gLppM2eDw
What do we do to stop the powers that be from becoming more powerful? How do keep power in the people's hands by not demanding rights? What is it that we should demand to stop the chief's from sitting on us? Is a chief sitting on us a prideful or humble thing for a chief to do?
have a cow why don't I?
Eat it!
Communion
~Aydra Jenson~. . ..Keeper of the StarSix. . . .
Personally I think Bison is the way to go. I was vegan-raw for 6 years and honestly have never felt better since I took up Buffalo and organic & living dairy products.
. . .
There is something so deep about the ceremony of the BBQ, I know in my family it felt wholesome and warm to gather together over the sacred fire, ritualistic even.
. . .
Amidst all this present confusion and chaos what do we have but what makes us happy? For as much work as I have done to remove my old patterns and habits and clean out the attic (not to mention the basement)- I still return to my childish pleasures and perks when I am most happy, being sure to note that if these choices veer down a path of destruction, to take conscious action.
. . .
Certainly destruction is a result of over-consumption and excess which breeds conflict both internally and externally. If we stick to honoring and trusting the source of the bounty and pleasures we celebrate then we are doing ourselves and our country a great justice.
. . .
However, indulging in attempts to sink some kind of destructive patterns will only worsen everything...
. . .
So have your burger but consume with pride and gratitude. Talk about it, investigate, know your choices/sources and their outcomes/impacts.
. . .
I must say I pulled my rather anti-4th of July housemate out to watch the fireworks from the hills of Hollywood yesterday evening and it was a blast (literally)
. . .
Although, the cites fireworks were pretty weak (perhaps due to the firework crisis that occurred in china)- what was happing within community that emerged to celebrate; strangers gathering in the streets, the glow and bustle of house parties, and of course- the best part of all- the illegal firework shows in the streets below which lasted throughout the night, nodded to a much needed action- to mingle with your immediate community.
. . .
We felt this ability to be totally expressive and free while walking the streets; acting out scenes, hoopin and hollarin, singing and dancing. Now if thats not a show of independence I don't know what is...the irony- we only get to celebrate it one day of the year, the other 364 days we are essentially targeted, judged and spotlighted for such behavior. But I believe this could change, if only we could see that true independence is found within, perhaps then more complete, expressive and child-like impulses would pour out of us more effortlessly.
. . .
Heres to the Buffalo, the most sacred of animals to our land. Let us celebrate its existence and honor it for its immense value and bounty within ourselves, our family and our community. Let us be Men who draws big circles around themselves.
. . . .
Happy Independence day also, did ya know....2012 is going to production http://www.beyondcommunion.com/featurefilms.html
Maybe it was all just a dream
Maybe America was only a dream we once dreamt
With picket fences and apple pies
Politicians that don’t lie
Families that reach out when in need
Corporations that are nice
Lakes and rivers that are free and clean to swim in
The war against the American Indian wasn’t genocide
Wars that are always just
Low cost food on Bar-b-ques
Low cost milk in cups
Affordable cloths… Affordable shoes
Affordable housing for new families
Jobs that always pay more then just for survival
No voice to feel alone when the cause is right
Police that are always friendly and nice
A government does not have unlawful searches and seizures
Habius corpus would always protect us
The newsman always tells the truth it’s his duty
It's a melting pot headed to a brotherhood of peace
Everyone is happy
Life is always good
Hmmmm… I guess I could go on but why
They tell me Jesus always makes everything new again
And gas would go back to being at least kind of cheap
Homes would always go up in value
That we would always be better off then our parents
And that a great depression will or can never happen again
Maybe America was only a dream that we once dreamt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_yGE8Kl9hY
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8173363188139133459&q=Wounded+Iraq+Machine+Gunner+Veteran&ei=J81wSPX3C6iO4wKWh-SXDw&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrPdZmPB36U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sim_rJOidsU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EWwrK0VQkY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGl8SJGd1nA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4SSvVbhLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAKnMLPus1M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMbBuEoEYnk
Obama's Forth of July Speech... mere words?
On a spring morning in April of 1775, a simple band of colonists - farmers and merchants, blacksmiths and printers, men and boys - left their homes and families in Lexington and Concord to take up arms against the tyranny of an Empire. The odds against them were long and the risks enormous - for even if they survived the battle, any ultimate failure would bring charges of treason, and death by hanging.
And yet they took that chance. They did so not on behalf of a particular tribe or lineage, but on behalf of a larger idea. The idea of liberty. The idea of God-given, inalienable rights. And with the first shot of that fateful day - a shot heard round the world - the American Revolution, and America's experiment with democracy, began.
Those men of Lexington and Concord were among our first patriots. And at the beginning of a week when we celebrate the birth of our nation, I think it is fitting to pause for a moment and reflect on the meaning of patriotism - theirs, and ours, and those of the corporations. We do so in part because we are in the midst of war - more than one and a half million of our finest young men and women have now fought in Iraq and Afghanistan; over 60,000 have been wounded, and over 4,600 have been laid to rest. The costs of war have been great, and the debate surrounding our mission in Iraq has been fierce. It is natural, in light of such sacrifice by so many, to think more deeply about the commitments that bind us to our nation, and to each other.
We reflect on these questions as well because we are in the midst of a presidential election, perhaps the most consequential in generations; a contest that will determine the course of this nation for years, perhaps decades, to come. Not only is it a debate about big issues - health care, jobs, energy, education, and retirement security - but it is also a debate about values. How do we keep ourselves safe and secure while preserving our liberties? How do we restore trust in a government that seems increasingly removed from its people and dominated by corporate special interests? How do we ensure that in an increasingly global economy, the winners maintain allegiance to the less fortunate? And how do we resolve our differences at a time of increasing diversity?
Finally, it is worth considering the meaning of patriotism because the question of who is - or is not - a patriot all too often poisons our political debates, in ways that divide us rather than bringing us together. I have come to know this from my own experience on the campaign trail. Throughout my life, I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country as a given. It was how I was raised; it is what propelled me into public service; it is why I am running for President. And yet, at certain times over the last sixteen months, I have found, for the first time, my patriotism challenged - at times as a result of my own carelessness, more often as a result of the desire by some to score political points and raise fears about who I am and what I stand for.
So let me say at this at outset of my remarks. I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign. And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine. I will only question the patriotism of the corporations and CEO’s whose only obligation is to themselves and seek to make many through war and also seek a more fascist state in which their power can only multiply over the people.
My concerns here aren't simply personal, however. After all, throughout our history, men and women of far greater stature and significance than me have had their patriotism questioned in the midst of momentous debates. Thomas Jefferson was accused by the Federalists of selling out to the French. The anti-Federalists were just as convinced that John Adams was in cahoots with the British and intent on restoring monarchal rule. Likewise, even our wisest Presidents have sought to justify questionable policies on the basis of patriotism. Adams' Alien and Sedition Act, Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, Roosevelt's internment of Japanese Americans - all were defended as expressions of patriotism, and those who disagreed with their policies were sometimes labeled as unpatriotic.
In other words, the use of patriotism as a political sword or a political shield is as old as the Republic. Still, what is striking about today's patriotism debate is the degree to which it remains rooted in the culture wars of the 1960s - in arguments that go back forty years or more. In the early years of the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War, defenders of the status quo often accused anybody who questioned the wisdom of government policies of being unpatriotic. Meanwhile, some of those in the so-called counter-culture of the Sixties reacted not merely by criticizing particular government policies, but by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself - by burning flags; by blaming America for all that was wrong with the world; and perhaps most tragically, by failing to honor those veterans coming home from Vietnam, something that remains a national shame to this day. But where the counter-culture of the sixties reacted right was in criticizing the military industrial corporations that were seeking to sink us deeper into a unjust war in Vietnam. And they also were right in not wanting to fight this unjust war. Those who burned their draft cards should have been honored rather then have been condemned as being unpatriotic.
.
Most Americans never bought into these simplistic world-views - these caricatures of left and right. Most Americans understood that dissent does not make one unpatriotic, and that there is nothing smart or sophisticated about a cynical disregard for America's traditions and institutions. And yet the anger and turmoil of that period never entirely drained away. All too often our politics still seems trapped in these old, threadbare arguments - a fact most evident during our recent debates about the war in Iraq, when those who opposed administration policy were tagged by some as unpatriotic, and a general providing his best counsel on how to move forward in Iraq was accused of betrayal. We must remember that when we are arguing these points of the Iraq War it is never unpatriotic to point the fingers at the corporations and big bankers of the land who seek to dominate and profit and control the people of this nation through the cover of patriotism. We must always remember that the corporate institutions and banks of this nation do not have flesh and blood, do not have beating hearts, and do not have souls. They are merely institutions made for profit and will do anything they can for profit and control of our children and our grandchildren.
Given the enormous challenges that lie before us, we can no longer afford these sorts of divisions between us as free human beings. None of us expect that arguments about patriotism will, or should, vanish entirely; after all, when we argue about patriotism, we are arguing about who we are as a country, as a people united, and more importantly, who we should be. But surely we can agree that no party or political philosophy or corporation or religious institution has a monopoly on patriotism. And surely we can arrive at a definition of patriotism that, however rough and imperfect, captures the best of America's common spirit. And the only thing that can truly hold the American spirit are men and women that are living and breathing in this land. For we must remember it is not government, or institution, or corporation that can contain a soul. For the only thing that can hold a sacred soul is the human being.
What would such a definition look like? For me, as for most Americans, patriotism starts as a gut instinct, a loyalty and love for country rooted in my earliest memories. I'm not just talking about the recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance or the Thanksgiving pageants at school or the fireworks on the Fourth of July, as wonderful as those things may be. Rather, I'm referring to the way the American ideal wove its way throughout the lessons my human family taught me as a child.
One of my earliest memories is of sitting on my grandfather's shoulders and watching the astronauts come to shore in Hawaii. I remember the cheers and small flags that people waved, and my grandfather explaining how we Americans could do anything we set our minds to do. That's my idea of America. But he should have explained more, and he should have told me about the genocide against the American Indian, and that sometimes there are things as Americans that have been done that have caused great harm to humanity.
I remember listening to my grandmother telling stories about her work on a bomber assembly-line during World War II. I remember my grandfather handing me his dog-tags from his time in Patton's Army, and understanding that his defense of this country marked one of his greatest sources of pride. But I also wish they also would have told me about the freedom marches in the south; I wish they would have told me about the Battle of Little Big Horn; Sherman’s March on Atlanta; That our country was the first nation to use the atom bomb for the specific use of wiping out whole cities; The genocide of the American Indian. That many of these atrocities happened because of greed be they religious, corporate, or government. That's my idea of America.
I remember, when living for four years in Indonesia as a child, listening to my mother reading me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I remember her explaining how this declaration applied to every American, black and white and brown alike; how those words, and words of the United States Constitution, protected us from the injustices that we witnessed other people suffering during those years abroad. That's my idea of America.
As I got older, that gut instinct - that America is the greatest country on earth - would survive my growing awareness of our nation's imperfections: it's ongoing racial strife; the perversion of our political system laid bare during the Watergate hearings; the wrenching poverty of the Mississippi Delta and the hills of Appalachia; the greed of corporations. Not only because, in my mind, the joys of American life and culture, its vitality, its variety and its freedom, always outweighed its imperfections, but because I learned that what makes America great has never been its perfection but the belief that it can be made better. I came to understand that our revolution was waged for the sake of that belief - that we could be governed by laws, not men or corporations; that we could be equal in the eyes of those laws; that we could be free to say what we want and assemble with whomever we want and worship as we please; that we could have the right to pursue our individual dreams but the obligation to help our fellow citizens pursue theirs. And that we should always be called citizen not consumer and the word citizen should be held as sacred.
For a young man of mixed race, without firm anchor in any particular community, without even a father's steadying hand, it is this essential American idea - that we are not constrained by the accident of birth but can make of our lives what we will - that has defined my life, just as it has defined the life of so many other Americans.
That is why, for me, patriotism is always more than just loyalty to a place on a map or a certain kind of people. Instead, it is also loyalty to America's ideals - ideals for which anyone can sacrifice, or defend, or give their last full measure of devotion. I believe it is this loyalty that allows a country teeming with different races and ethnicities, religions and customs, to come together as one without the interference of corporation or religious institution or political party. It is the application of these ideals that separate us from Zimbabwe, where the opposition party and their supporters have been silently hunted, tortured or killed; or Burma, where tens of thousands continue to struggle for basic food and shelter in the wake of a monstrous storm because a military junta fears opening up the country to outsiders; or Iraq, where despite the heroic efforts of our military, and the courage of many ordinary Iraqis, even limited cooperation between various factions remains far too elusive.
I believe those who attack America's flaws without acknowledging the singular greatness of our ideals, and their proven capacity to inspire a better world, do not truly understand America. But they do understand that it is greed and consumerism that is now a threat to the singular greatness of our ideals.
Of course, precisely because America isn't perfect, precisely because our ideals constantly demand more from us, patriotism can never be defined as loyalty to any particular leader or government or policy or institution or corporation. As Mark Twain, that greatest of American satirists and proud son of Missouri, once wrote, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." We may hope that our leaders and our government stand up for our human ideals, and there are many times in our history when that's occurred. But when our laws, our leaders or our government and our corporations are out of alignment with our ideals, then the dissent of ordinary Americans may prove to be one of the truest expression of patriotism.
The young preacher from Georgia, Martin Luther King, Jr., who led a movement to help America confront our tragic history of racial injustice and live up to the meaning of our creed - he was a patriot. The young soldier who first spoke about the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib - he is a patriot. Recognizing a wrong being committed in this country's name; insisting that we deliver on the promise of our Constitution - these are the acts of patriots, men and women who are defending that which is best in America. And we should never forget that - especially when we disagree with them; especially when they make us uncomfortable with their words.
Beyond a loyalty to America's ideals, beyond a willingness to dissent on behalf of those ideals, I also believe that patriotism must, if it is to mean anything, involve the willingness to sacrifice - to give up something we value on behalf of a larger cause. For those who have fought under the flag of this nation - for the young veterans I meet when I visit Walter Reed; for those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country - no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary. And let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides. And yet I would like to still add that I have never seen the CEO of a major corporation in America lying wounded at Walter Reed Hospital and I don’t believe I ever will. We must always express our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform and we must never stop asking if their cause to fight the people of our nation is a just one. Period. Indeed, one of the good things to emerge from the current conflict in Iraq has been the widespread recognition that whether you support this war or oppose it, the sacrifice of our troops is always worthy of honor. And we honor them most completely by questioning if the fight is for a just cause. I believe we can come to gauge any war by seeing whose sons and daughters are doing the fighting. Who has signed up?
For the rest of us - for those of us not in uniform or without loved ones in the military - the call to sacrifice for the country's greater good remains an imperative of citizenship. Sadly, in recent years, in the midst of war on two fronts, this call to service never came. After 9/11, we were asked to shop. The wealthiest among us saw their tax obligations decline, even as the costs of war continued to mount. Rather than work together to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and thereby lessen our vulnerability to a volatile region, our energy policy remained unchanged, and our oil dependence only grew. In this I must ask myself. How many sons and daughters of CEO’s and elected officials in this nation have been killed or wounded? How many sons and daughters of the middle class worker or poor have been killed or wounded.
In spite of this absence of leadership from Washington and Corporations of America, I have seen a new generation of Americans begin to take up the call. I meet them everywhere I go, young people involved in the project of American renewal; not only those who have signed up to fight for our country in distant lands, but those who are fighting for a better America here at home, by teaching in underserved schools, or caring for the sick in understaffed hospitals, or promoting more sustainable energy policies in their local communities.
I believe one of the tasks of the next Administration is to ensure that this movement towards service grows and sustains itself in the years to come. We should expand AmeriCorps and grow the Peace Corps. We should encourage national service by making it part of the requirement for a new college assistance program, even as we strengthen the benefits for those whose sense of duty has already led them to serve in our military.
We must remember, though, that true patriotism cannot be forced or legislated with a mere set of government or corporate programs. Instead, it must reside in the hearts of our people, and cultivated in the heart of our culture, and nurtured in the hearts of our children.
As we begin our fourth century as a nation, it is easy to take the extraordinary nature of America for granted. But it is our responsibility as Americans and as parents to instill that history in our children however comfortable or uncomfortable it may be, both at home and at school. The loss of quality civic education from so many of our classrooms has left too many young Americans without the most basic knowledge of who our forefathers are, or what they did, or the significance of the founding documents that bear their names. Too many children are ignorant of the sheer effort, the risks and sacrifices made by previous generations, to ensure that this country survived war and depression and genocide; through the great struggles for civil, and social, and land, and worker's rights.
It is up to us, then, to teach them. It is up to us to teach them that even though we have faced great challenges and made our share of mistakes, we have always been able to come together and make this nation stronger, and more prosperous, and more united, and more just. It is up to us to teach them that America has been a force for good in the world, and that other nations and other people have looked to us as the last, best hope of Earth. It is up to us to teach them that it is good to give back to one's community; that it is honorable to serve in the military; that it is vital to participate in our democracy and make our voices heard.
And it is up to us to teach our children a lesson that those of us in politics too often forget: that patriotism involves not only defending this country against external threat and the greedy internal threats; also involves working constantly to make America a better place for future generations.
When we pile up mountains of debt for the next generation to absorb, or put off changes to our energy policies, knowing full well the potential consequences of inaction, we are placing our short-term interests ahead of the nation's long-term well-being. When we fail to educate effectively millions of our children so that they might compete in a global economy, or we fail to invest in the basic scientific research that has driven innovation in this country, we risk leaving behind an America that has fallen in the ranks of the world. Just as patriotism involves each of us making a commitment to this nation that extends beyond our own immediate or corporate self-interest, so must that commitment extends beyond our own time here on earth.
Our greatest leaders have always understood this. They've defined patriotism with an eye toward posterity. George Washington is rightly revered for his leadership of the Continental Army, but one of his greatest acts of patriotism was his insistence on stepping down after two terms, thereby setting a pattern for those that would follow, reminding future presidents that this is a government of and by and for the people.
Abraham Lincoln did not simply win a war or hold the Union together. In his unwillingness to demonize those against whom he fought; in his refusal to succumb to either the hatred or self-righteousness that war can unleash; in his ultimate insistence that in the aftermath of war the nation would no longer remain half slave and half free; and his trust in the better angels of our nature - he displayed the wisdom and courage that sets a standard for patriotism.
And it was the most famous son of Independence, Missouri, Harry S Truman, who sat in the White House during his final days in office and said in his Farewell Address: "When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task...But through all of it, through all the years I have worked here in this room, I have been well aware than I did not really work alone - that you were working with me. No President could ever hope to lead our country, or to sustain the burdens of this office, save the people helped with their support."
In the end, it may be this quality that best describes patriotism in my mind - not just a love of America in the abstract, but a very particular love for, and faith in, the American people. That is why our heart swells with pride at the sight of our flag; why we shed a tear as the lonely notes of Taps sound. For we know that the greatness of this country - its victories in war as long as they were just, its enormous wealth as long as they were shared, its scientific and cultural achievements as long as they were moral - all result from the energy and imagination and hope of the American people; their toil, drive, struggle, restlessness, humor and quiet heroism.
That is the liberty we defend - the liberty of each of us to pursue our own dreams. That is the equality we seek - not an equality of results be they human or corporate, but the chance of every single one of us, with a human soul, to make it if we try. That is the community we strive to build - one in which we trust in this sometimes messy democracy of ours, one in which we continue to insist that there is nothing we cannot do when we put our mind to it, one in which we see ourselves as part of a larger story, our own fates wrapped up in the fates of those who share allegiance to America's happy and singular creed.
Thank you, and may the Great Creator Bless the people of the United States of America and the land they walk upon.
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