Topic: Social and Cultural Issues
Patriots What does it mean to be a patriot in our time?by P Hedt
(libertarian)
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Patriotism is love of ones country. What do you do when you love something? Same as you would when you love someone. You hold them with honor, you protect them, and you sacrifice for them. You don't kick them when they are down, disown them when they make a decision you disagree with, or make a profit at their expense. We may be going through a rough economic patch but if we pull together as a country of patriots, we will come out of this with the stronger hand. We can all do things, business (wo)men, politicians, right down to you and me.
Business people, you can be patriotic most by laying off as few a people as possible. I work in a business where our corporate offices laid off almost half the year round staff, because they needed to conserve money' while in the same breath they bought three other properties. Laying off people when you can afford to keep them is not patriotic and will hurt you in the long run. On the flip side keeping them will ingratiate them to you and foster loyalty. The more people loose their job the less people who will have money to spend. The less people who have money to spend the less money you, as a business owner, will make.
Politicians- bailouts are not patriotic. Its robbing the poor to give to the rich, and it leads to the devaluation of the dollar. For anyone who thinks that the free market way of thinking about economics is dead just because of the current economic meltdown' is severely mistaken. The free market would work if we stopped tampering with it. What got us into this mess was not deregulation as much as it was stupid business practices. When a CEO makes a stupid business decision his/her business must suffer the consequences- not let the government bail them out. Those CEO's would have fallen and new ones who were smart enough not to follow the same pattern of their predecessor would have risen. Reversal is the movement of Tao. Companies fall but others will rise to take their place. If we don't let them fall less and less money will make it back into the hands of the lower and middle class. You think it's a coincidence that the price for a barrel of oil went down after the world took an economic tumble? Either someone in the oil business was flexing a muscle, or something scared them into lowering the prices, or, its possible that demand went down and prices followed (I don't buy the last one).
For the citizens, the patriotic way we can help our country emerge on top? Staying active and showing kindness is the two top things we all can do. Stay on top of your politicians to make sure they are representing our goals. My biggest fear right now is that we will lose steam in watching and writing our senators and congressmen. They will soon pass an economic stimulus package in which they will print money to send us all six hundred dollars or so. Keep in mind that that money is watered down and if we cash it we are personally enabling the government's addiction to payday loans. What a tremendous statement we would send to Washington if nobody cashed their checks. Its coming- lets organize the protest now. We as citizens cannot allow our fellow citizens to become complacent again.
The other thing we can do is to be kind to our neighbors. I know this sound simple but the nicer we are to each other the more united we will become. The more united we all become the stronger our nation will become. The more people you go out of your way for, the more allies you will have made and the easier it will be for you to organize when necessary. If you both sent back your stimulus package and they are hurting on groceries, invite the patriot over for dinner, the favor will be returned at some point.
When you love something, you fight for it. That fighting can take place on many levels ranging from physical to passive resistance. We do need to fight, we need to resist. There has been a quiet civil war being waged on Capitol Hill for years. We can call the fight to a halt and win our country back- we just need to love our country enough to do it. Love sometimes requires sacrifice, just as you love your children, love their inheritance. Love your country.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of P Hedt only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. P Hedt is
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employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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