Patriotism is Good but Commonsense is Better
by Jim Moore

02/12/03

What's wrong with this picture? And what's wrong with the story under it? 

I'm looking at a sweet picture of little 5-year-old Mallorie Lewis staring lovingly up at her dad, Captain George Lewis, in his army uniform The caption over the picture reads, "Local Reservists Ship Out", and the story is simple

Five army reservists, including Lewis, from the 351st Adjutant General Company are being sent to Fort Stewart, 40 miles southwest of Savannah, and then, who knows where? 

To honor the five reservists, the Tallahassee area had a Sunday ceremony, which Captain Lewis and his family attended, and where this picture was taken.  The Lewis family, from Dothan, Alabama, consists of Mallorie, 3-year-old Cassie, 2-year-old Gavin, and Lewis' wife, Pam, who is three months pregnant with their fourth child.

What I sense strange about this story is that Captain Lewis, who had been on inactive duty in Dothan, planned on not staying inactive. So he looked for a unit where he could be activated. He found one and signed on with it.

But what I find even more strange is what Captain Lewis said about why he went on active duty: "I don't know if this is patriotism or what. I just knew it was time to get back in." And get shipped out, he might have added.

What I find odd is the knee-jerk kind of patriotism that prompts a reservist to leave three children under five, and a pregnant wife, and jump back into active duty that may take him into a dangerous area on the other side of the world because he "knew it was time to go back in."

Why was Captain Lewis anxious to go back in even if it might take him 4,000 miles from home? Even a deeper mystery is, what happened that suddenly convinced him that it was time to go?

Was it an afterthought of the 9/11 tragedy? Was it our decision to go after Osama bin Laden? Was it Bush's determination to liquidate Saddam Hussein? Was it the threat of more attacks on American soil? Was it all of these? Or was it something else…something called "patriotism"?

Now, I'm an advocate of true patriotism. People who love their country are my kind of people. And when the country they love is America they have my full and wholehearted support.

But there is, I believe, such a thing as patriotism tempered with restraint, commonsense, and above all, legitimacy.

I recall quite clearly the surge of patriotic fervor that stirred the young people to action immediately after Pearl Harbor. I remember because I was one of them. 

Hundreds of thousands of young men and women resolutely left home and family to answer their nation's call to arms. When your country is in serious trouble, patriotism is as natural as breathing. 

However, when there is no imminent threat, no general call to arms, no logical reason to join in a conflict, no constitutional rationale for dragging America into war, or no certainty that the administration is right in its decision to go to war, all bets for patriotism are off.

The country's leaders have no right to expect any citizen to jump at every pre-conceived notion of danger, and leave their home, their family, their job, and perhaps lose their life for some undefined, inconclusive, or irrational reason---such as the forced march towards the unwarranted and unwanted war we're experiencing right now. 

It's one thing to defend your country and its principles in response to real threats. But it's another thing to rush yourself (and family) into the consequences of war before every effort has been made to avoid one. 

By any sane and reasonable assessment of where we stand with Iraq, there is no reason to send American troops to this impoverished country on the wishes of an administration that has shown nothing conclusive enough for any Americans to make such a sacrifice. Perhaps even the ultimate sacrifice.

Are we really to believe that it serves any good purpose to declare war on any nation with little more than the circumstantial evidence presented by "hot for war" members of a suspiciously imperialistic administration ? 

That's why, when I read about Capt. George Lewis's determination to get into an active unit, I was dismayed. Leaving behind a wife and four children, when no sacrifice is asked or demanded of him, I find very troubling.

Capt. George Lewis left his family with the explanation: "I don't know if this is patriotism or what, I just knew it was time to get back in.".

To the Captain, I say, "Patriotism is a wonderful thing. And you seem to have it. But commonsense patriotism is better."

When evoked by implied danger, a show of patriotism is nice, but unwarranted. And when that unwarranted patriotism prompts a man to unnecessarily leave his wife and children, it becomes a senseless family separation in a non-war scenario. 



Jim Moore
Jmoore1819@aol.com

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