Palaver from Persimmon Crossing
with Warren Faulk| According to the U.S. military, "Patriot" is the name of a U.S.-made weapon of mass destruction. But more usually, patriots are people. |
"PATRIOT"
What is one? Who makes the rules? Can you tell by looking, listening? Is it a popularity thing? Is it permanent? If you are once for something and then change your mind does your status as a patriot change? If you are "for" a war and the post war cost benefit analysis says we shouldn't have, who then are the patriots?
Is the patriot the one who shouts loudest but can't see the possibility that there may be several sets of views at work? Is he the one that sits quietly even though he really doesn't understand or agree with what is happening? Or is he the one who persists in his unpopular views even in the midst of war?
I think the case can be made that the term applies to all of these.
No citizen need defend his right to speak. Not the smallest child. Not the old codger who hasn't been any closer to war than a John Wayne movie. Anyone ... anyone ... who would tell another citizen that he has no right to speak his mind and determine the proper place and time, no matter how frustrating the circumstances is simply wrong. And that fact will not change over time.
At the end of the day, each of us must decide what patriotism means to us. Patriotism is an individual decision.
Every country has patriots. Only one has AMERICANS.
-- Warren Faulk
Smarr, Georgia
March, 2003
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