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--> --> Patriotism is a very complex emotion By Roger Simon WASHINGTON - What if your boss came to you and asked you to wear an American flag lapel pin? "It will show you're a patriot," the boss says, "and, besides, it will be good for business." You might have several reactions to this: You might already be wearing a flag lapel pin (or American flag tongue stud or belly button pin) because you want to show support for your country in a time of crisis, for those Americans who have died, for their loved ones and for the brave rescuers, all of whom risked and some of whom lost their lives. Or you might like the idea of wearing a lapel pin voluntarily, but don't want to be forced to wear one by your boss. Or you might feel you don't want to wear one because your feelings of patriotism are personal and you don't want to be forced to express them if you don't want to. Or you might feel that you don't want to wear such a pin because you oppose military action against people in Afghanistan or elsewhere, and you think the U.S. government is wrong in launching this new "war," and that serious questions ought to be asked and answered before we take hostile action. All of these reactions are very American. All of these actions, in their own way, are "patriotic." Patriotism has always been a complex emotion for Americans. Our Founding Fathers did not start out, after all, as "patriots." If they had been patriots, they would have flown the Union Jack, drunk toasts to King George III and loyally paid his Stamp Tax. Instead, the Founding Fathers were revolutionaries. They were questioners. And they questioned whether there was a limit to patriotism, a limit to love of country. They decided there was. They argued that a government could act so wrongly as to be unworthy of the support of its citizens. You know the famous words they used: "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 - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ..." We now call these men patriots because first, they were correct, and second, they won. Had they lost, the big names we now honor in our hearts and on our currency - Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison - would have been hung. Our Founders left us more than a new country, however. They left us a history of being able to love our country and our government, and still want to be able to dissent. I'll bet if you went up to anybody flying a flag today or wearing a flag lapel pin and asked them if they were willing to give up all their Constitutional rights until the war on terrorism was won, almost all of them would tell you that you were nuts. That's simply not the way Americans do things. We love our country in part because of the unique liberties we give our people. NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw, who is one of the most thoughtful journalists I know, recently said he didn't think journalists should be wearing flag lapel pins on the air. "I don't think a journalist ought to be wearing a flag, because it does seem to be, to me at least, a sign of solidarity toward whatever the government is doing, and that is not our role," Brokaw told a group of journalism students at Northwestern University on Monday. "I'm a patriot, and I think being a patriot means (to) love your country but think you can always improve it. And part of my role as a journalist is to ask questions and to examine the issues that will lead to some improvement of the country." As for me, I'd be glad to make a patriotic display as long as it was voluntary. In other words, I'd be glad to wear an American flag pin until the moment somebody told me I had to wear one. And then I wouldn't wear one any more. Roger Simon is a columnist for the Baltimore Sun. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing