Published: July 04, 2008 12:58 am            

ADAMCZYK: Patriotism still runs high

You’re reading the page with the stentorian opinion, the inflated views of self-defined experts, the know-it-alls who often have a financial motive in encouraging your involvement in their cause (always read the capsule biography at the end of an editorial, and note that pro-oil pronouncements are often written by oil executives, anti-reform columns are often written by lawyers with a hand in the game, etc.). As the center square on the Fourth of July, there had better be something profound in this space, so let’s talk about loss in the summer of 2008.

There are gains and losses in life, but it seems that maturity today can be quantified by what we’ve given up, what was a part of life in our past that isn’t there, or is less relevant, now. Depending on who we are and how long we’ve been at it, we’ve given up on marriage; religion; success as we once defined it; politicians (“they all seemed like game show hosts to me,” according to a song by Sting); family; the ability of government to deliver on its promise; sports franchises and their incessant demands; employment as a means of happiness (“all those things that seemed so important, mister, they vanished right into the air,” according to a song by Springsteen).

Ever met anyone who’s given up on being an American?

Complaining is as universal as striving to shed the burdens of what no longer works in one’s life, but next to no one renounces his or her American citizenship (out of 300 million Americans, only 470 did so in 2007, the overwhelming majority for purposes of tax avoidance). We keep on, we worry and clamor for redirection when the United States of America, in all its forms, does not live up to the expectations ingrained in us since kindergarten, but we don’t give up. We, the 78 percent of the populace identified in last week’s Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll who think things in this country are “seriously off on the wrong track” never consider Belgium or Australia or fill-in-your-own-blank as a legitimate alternative.

A recent Wall Street Journal editorial by Gregg Easterbrook, formerly of Kenmore West High School and now of the Brookings Institution, summed it up thusly: life is good, so why do we feel so bad? Metrics for inflation, income, people enrolled in college, unemployment and others are good, yet the citizenry is left empty and roiling for change. Things are spectacularly sweet (ask any prospective immigrant), yet we think we’re on the wrong track.

We can give up on anything, but we stay red, white and blue.

Patriotism is constant, but methods come in and out of vogue. It was once a sign of national solidarity to buy an American vehicle, Volkswagens and Toyotas being something of a countercultural, and vaguely suspicious, totem. These days, no one but the United Auto Workers looks at things that way, and no car or truck for sale today is built of 100 percent American parts (74 percent of the parts in for-sale-in-America General Motors products originate in the U.S.; astoundingly, 59 percent of Honda’s parts are, too, according to the Level Field Institute, a scorekeeper for the auto industry).

My own metric, regarding patriotism, involves counting the number or the size of the American flags displayed behind whoever is attempting to tell you, or sell you, something. It comes from the last weeks of the Nixon regime, when the president stood before flags as big as the ones used in Germany circa 1938, and told us not to worry. It comes from his vice-president, the less-than-honorable Spiro T. Agnew, who tried to divert attention from his problems with extortion, tax fraud and bribery by demanding to talk about “what’s right with America” (accompanied by big cheers from what remained of his Republican faithful). The greater the use of Old Glory, the more suspicious I get.

Of course, on the Fourth of July, all bets are off. We’re expected to fly the flag, wave the flag, wear the flag or something like it, and make some racket in the name of independence. This rowdy noisemaking is a tradition as old as the flag itself. On the first anniversary of independence, July 4, 1777, 13 cannons were set off in the harbor of Bristol, R.I., and the party in Philadelphia looked a lot like the celebration you’ll be watching, with fireworks, drinking, parades and music.

Somewhere along the line we’ll ponder the nature of independence in 2008 and whether it has been supplanted by someone else’s power and profit. Whether we’re burning our independence when we burn imported fossil fuel. If, as George Carlin pointed out, we’ve sold our birthrights for cheeseburgers and sneakers. If freedom’s just another word for marketers to use.

That’s what I love about this holiday. There are so many things I used to be, things I don’t celebrate anymore. I’m still American.

Ed Adamczyk is a Kenmore resident whose column appears Fridays in the Tonawanda News. Contact him at EdinKenmore@gmail.com.

        

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