Robotics And Patriots
Like children in schools everywhere in the country did the first thing every morning, we all stood up like little soldiers and faced the American flag that hung in the corner of the room as we put our little hands over our little hearts and mumbled the pledge of allegiance.
We were totally naive empty vessels spread across the land and we craved to fill ourselves up and the adults in the room were more than willing to turn on the pump. They too were once tiny, empty vessels and they too were filled with things that made no sense to them by their elders. Like good little robots, we all said the mantra which was nothing less than brainwashing along with our teacher, Mrs. Tartoni, at Spring Valley School.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, invisible with liberty and justice for all.”
That’s right “invisible.” I was in second or third grade and I didn’t know there was a word “indivisible” so it was “invisible.” Little did I know that my malaprop was actually very appropriate to describe the elusive principles were taught.
I probably couldn’t define “allegiance” so I just sounded it out. I had not a clue about what I was saying or why. I was just a kid. Looking back I assume Mrs. Tartoni knew why and what the words meant. Maybe not.
Patriotism.
My mother hoisted the flag up the pole outside of our house every morning and took it down every night, according to flag etiquette.
Every July 4, we carried our lawn chairs to sit and watch the parade travel up Forest Avenue. The colors of the republic were everywhere; kids had red, white and blue bunting on their bicycles and little babies in strollers waived little American flags.
Everybody was white skinned, from the mothers and babies to the proud Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies to the Elks Club members who marched like martinets down the road, as patriotic music blared.
And at night a sea of whiteness drove to the high school to watch the fireworks in all their glory, ending with the American flag lit up amid explosions. Fortunately there was no COVID 19 because we did not exercise physical distancing as we packed the field like sardines and searched for an open area to pitch our blanket so we could crane our necks to ooh and ahh at the noises and the sights of the pyrotechnics.
Everybody was an unquestioning patriot because that’s what we were told to do. I was an unquestioning patriot because they told me to. If everybody is telling you the same thing, it must be true. And if it has to do with the U.S.A. it is unassailable. Anyone who assails will be quickly labeled un-American.
“Liberty and justice for all.” Those five words were repeated and repeated until they were sewed into the very soul of every white boy and girl. Those words were the lynchpin, the cement of the nation and the reason why our fathers and brothers fought and died in wars in places with names we couldn’t pronounce for reasons that were suspect at best.
Only it wasn’t true. The promises we learned by saying the pledge were an illusion that was and remains necessary to keep the nation from imploding. It was a way to keep the deck of cards from crumbling but it has feet of clay. It worked for many years until the lies have become just too heavy to support it any more.
There has never been liberty and justice for all in the U.S., especially not for the African Americans. Since we’ve been babies, it’s been hammered into our brains that we are protectors of the world because we are the land of the free. Free for who?
We didn’t learn about the “Wall Street Massacre” in Tulsa, Okla. And many still believe the fairy tale rationale for the invasion of Iraq and the war in Vietnam that took the lives of so many of those little children who had grown up to be warriors and were led to slaughter.
I am angry that as an innocent child I was filled with lies and was never told the truth about so many dark periods in American history. I am angry that as a child, I was bullied into submission and I am angry that education is still largely a method of propaganda.
I am proud to be an American but no more proud than I am to be a citizen of the world. I was born that way. But my patriotism has never been lower. There have been just too many horrendous things done in the name of America, especially in the past few years. And I am so angry that so many of my young peers went to war believing the smoke that had been blown their way.
True patriots search for reality and work to make things better. They don’t close their eyes and wish. True patriots bravely look at the facts.