Patriotism - worth its weight?

Simply put, while it’s the latest craze to be patriotic and to don the red, white and blue, Americans should look first at their 3rd grade history books. Citizens tie themselves to their countries and communities and disregard what is wrong and right. People flew those planes, people like the ones who would be willing to drop bombs on America’s enemies. No, “evil” did not fly those airplanes into the Pentagon and World Trade Centers. The country is at a crossroads, just as it was during the war in Vietnam. Take, for example, fascist Italy or Nazi Germany: the line between ethics and politics become blurred; if the Fatherland needs something, is it morally right to provide for it? Is it right to ostracize racial or ethnic groups, take an aggressive military stance, or even wage mass murder? While conventional logic would answer “no,” history proves, once again, that nation-worship gets the best of citizens. The nationalism that has infiltrated this country’s thought process makes it hard for people to rationalize the motives behind events like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. Patriotism dehumanizes people who dissent and opens the floodgates for retrogression. This country is cloaked in a veil of naïve thinking, forgetting all along that everyone on this earth is one and the same. The negative effects of it are starting to repeat themselves here and now. It’s human nature to join a group, but the individual thought process is more important.

As a human being, there’s loyalty that has to be split between a country and planet. Is it right to engage war with Iraq? What about the “war on terror?” America finds itself blindfolded by faith in its administrations and their actions.