We had spent 2 days in a continuous dripping sweat as we toured the injured city of Mobile, Alabama. A climb of “the battleship” as we Southerners like to refer to her followed by a car tour of a hurricane scarred Dauphine Island had left us worn and dehydrated. Unsatisfied after a dip in the hotel pool, we set out on a late night search of the ultimate summertime refreshment, ice cream.
It is a little known fact that your neighborhood Walgreen’s stocks an outrageously tempting freezer full of ice cream treats. We made our selections and returned to the car as quickly as the thick night air would allow us. As the car reversed to leave the parking lot, a window sticker on a neighboring vehicle caught my eye. I starred in wonder at the simple square sticker and insisted my companion circle the parking lot to get a better look. As we approached the other car, I squealed with delight as my second look confirmed what I had originally seen. I pointed and urged my companion to look as well. The sticker was small, about 4 inches square, and black with simple white block print forming a large letter “M”. But this was no ordinary “M”. This was a clever “M”. This was actually a “W” turned upside down. And not just any “W”. This was THE “W”. The one we all saw on the backs of gas guzzling SUVs everywhere during the last election. And beneath the “M” where formerly one might have read “The President.”, this sticker said simply “The Moron.” I was completely enchanted. Not only was the sentiment right on the money but using the moron’s own propaganda against him was nothing short of genius! I decided then and there that I simply must have one. And then I decided I had to have more than one because this was just too good to keep to myself.
The stickers arrived and went from envelope to rear window in a matter of seconds. I took another to a fellow Bush-hater at work. Within hours, a red-faced, trembling, eye-popping Republican, who happens to me our boss was standing at my desk. With much effort, he spit out his displeasure and warned me not to give my co-worker “offensive” stickers for her to “display in her cubicle”. The “display” was the top of her desk where she had lain it in preparation for adhesion to her car.
In relating this story to an aquaintance, I was quickly reprimanded with “Oh, you shouldn’t criticize our leader. Don’t you know that is unpatriotic?” The friend assured me he made this statement in jest, but his statements mirrored those spoken by people like my boss whose ire at merely seeing the sticker rendered him very nearly speechless.
Today I began to think about the concept of patriotism and the definition of a true patriot. Usually when one thinks along this vein, an image like that of Patrick Henry or Samuel Adams appears, unheeded, on the brain. It was that image that revealed to me the irony of our times. Those men, and other leaders of their time, not only spoke out against their leaders, they wrote long treatises detailing their complaints and Ben Franklin was only too happy to print theirs right beside his own in his newspaper. It was through learning about the founders of our country that I formed my idea that a true patriot is patriotic to his country and speaks out against anyone who would do her harm, whether he be leader of not. When did our idea of patriotism shift from allegiance to our motherland to unwavering support of an unelected public official, especially when that public official is bring harm to our homeland?