JOHN F. FLOYD COMMENTARY: Patriotism the key to ending political divisions
It is a dilemma for the United States of America: What to do about political party stratification?
When an immovable object meets an irresistible force, what are the results? How can two political parties who genuinely have the best interests of the U.S. at heart be so diametrically opposed in their policies? Or better still, how can a country and its citizenry that have been through a Revolutionary War, a War Between the States, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and now the unending war in the Middle East be complicit in writing the final chapter in the greatest experimentation of individual freedom?
I think reunification of America all starts — however asinine some consider the word — with patriotism.
President Ronald Reagan addressed this issue in 1989. He said, “An informed patriotism is what we want. Are we doing a good job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of institutions. If you did not get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio.”
Most schoolchildren of today aren’t being taught about the sacrifices made by previous generations that provided them with individual freedom. A lot of adults, as well as children, believe the liberties we enjoy come through osmosis or absorption.
Patriotism is defined as “the love and loyal or zealous support of one’s country.” Most liberal arts curriculum educators somehow think that patriotism is something for the uneducated. But this is where the millions of “uneducated citizens” — simply meaning no college education — stand out. They love our country.
President Reagan went on to say, “And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. ... And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. ... We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.”
American freedom is very fragile, but where are the protectors? Certainly not today’s politicians.
Those who should be concerned about the fragility of freedom are the American press. They are no longer objective and President Joe Biden needs a press free from bias.
President Biden has set as a primary goal “bringing the country together,” and I think he sincerely means just that. President Biden has, in his early days in office, paid political debts with all his executive orders. He is a good man who sincerely loves this country and if I had to pick a president among all Democrats, it would be Biden.
What President Biden doesn’t need is a press that vilifies with venom and disdain former President Trump. Peggy Noonan, writer for the Wall Street Journal, in her Declarations commentary, is a prime example of what is not needed. She wrote, “After an exhausting four years, a relatively normal inauguration offers hope that better days are ahead. ... It wasn’t a scandal Donald Trump wasn’t there, it was a gift.”
She continued with the heart of President Biden’s speech, which was an urgent call for unity: ”We need tolerance and humility. We cannot allow our tensions to break us up: Disagreement must not lead to disunion. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.”
President Biden asked those who did not vote for him to take a measure of him and his heart. I think he was sincere when he said, “My whole soul is in it,”
He sees a badly divided nation. He has the honesty and integrity to administer resuscitation to a country in deep trouble. If he can extricate himself from the demons of past and present politicians, he and the country both have a chance.
John F. Floyd is a Gadsden native who graduated from Gadsden High School in 1954. He formerly was director of United Kingdom manufacturing, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., vice president of manufacturing and international operations, General Tire & Rubber Co., and director of manufacturing, Chrysler Corp. He can be reached at email@example.com. The opinions reflected are his own.