The Scars of Patriotism

Every Independence Day, I watch 1776. It’s not perfect, but I love it anyway. It’s a reminder of the fact that our country was founded as much by politicians as by the military. And of the fact that we have been compromising since day one, because we had to. And the compromises killed sometimes—the best song in the movie, after all, is “Molasses to Rum to Slaves.” It makes me proud, honestly, because this country may not be perfect but it’s better than it could be. There’s the shame, and we need to acknowledge that, but this country was built, mostly, by people doing there best.

It’s hard to feel that this year. The day after the election, I watched a bunch of movies where people punched Nazis, because punching Nazis was deeply satisfying. But it was hard to get into Captain America’s need to go overseas to fight bullies, because the bullies had just taken over the country. Yeah, I also watched Eglantine Price fighting Nazis, and Indiana Jones fighting Nazis, but Captain America, who has been punching Nazis since day one, hurt. I don’t watch patriotic movies often. But it’s hard to watch them at all now.

I’ve long believed that the way you love your country as a grown-up is to know your country’s failings. That’s why the ones I watch include 1776, and Captain America—one of the few movies to talk about the Japanese internment. Even leaving aside Tom Cruise, I’m not going to watch Top Gun and its rah-rah jingoism. Glory and its acknowledgement of racism is much more my speed. I quite liked Hidden Figures, another movie that showed both the best and worst of the US in the time that it’s set.

But it’s gotten hard to believe in the best. Our current government won’t fight Nazis; it welcomes them in. Our current government won’t fight Confederates; it welcomes them in. Our current government won’t fight tyrants; it is tyrannical. Our current government won’t let someone get the job for which she is the most qualified simply because her being a black woman makes them decide she can’t possibly be the most qualified and must be a DEI hire. How can you watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington when the government really is planning to sell off lands to be strip-mined and clearcut?

I still love my country for what it can be. At its best, America is Apollo 13. At its best, we punch Nazis and fight back against bigotry and go to space. We can be strong union workers. We can learn and we can teach. We can march. We can stand up for one another and fight the oppressors. We sing and we tell stories and we are from all over the world, come together into one country that can, at its best, be pretty damn great. It just hurts sometimes to remember what we can be when we are busy being something else.