by Marvin Double

Created on: December 10, 2011

As a kid, growing up in the American mid-west, in the 1950's patriotism seemed pretty simple. It was that feeling of pride about the place we lived and the things we did as American's.

Being patriotic was just an accepted part of the culture. When people stood, hand over heart during the national anthem no one had to explain why -it was a gesture of respect, a sign of unity.

Even to kids the concept of patriotism was pretty obvious. We were all proud to be Americans, living in the land of the free, home of the brave.

Patriotism was all around us every day. We pledged allegiance to the flag, every morning in school, an act which reinforced how privileged we were to live in “one nation under God, indivisible”.

These powerful words drove into our young minds the essence of the patriotic spirit, scarcely understood but deeply felt all the same.

School lessons molded our ideas about America and what it meant to be a patriot. Paul Revere's famous ride, the heroic minute men, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the shot heard round the world. The examples were laid out for us, with textbook precision. The Boston Tea Party, Valley Forge, Washington crossing the Delaware, ours was a history of conflict, a rejection of tyranny.

America, we were taught, was a land of courageous souls willing to stand-up and fight for freedom, human dignity and all things that are right, just and wholesome.

On memorial day patriotism became more than just a lesson from a history book. Visiting the cemetery with parents, what seemed to be thousand tiny American flags marked the graves of many who had died in wars, fighting for their country. Each flag was a silent reminder of price of freedom sometimes demands.

To a youthful mind, these physical symbols of America, fluttering gently against countless gravestones, connected patriotism and sacrifice in an unforgettable, powerfully emotional image.

Looking back through the lens of history and experience, it's easy now to see that those ideas of patriotism, were perhaps to simple, and some would argue, naive.

For middle class white kids in the suburbs, well feed in good schools, it was easy to be idealistic. Patriotism comes easily for those whose road through life is straight and smooth. But for many in America the road was neither smooth nor straight and the issue of patriotism was somewhat more complicated.

In point of fact, the pure, idealistic mom and apple pie America that stirred patriotism for many, was more fiction than fact.

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