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Fraggin'

By Bill Shunas

A couple of months ago I went to a White Sox game. As happens at every sporting event the national anthem was sung before the game. Everyone stood up, and most people removed their caps and sort of faced the flag. When I got home I looked up the protocol, and sure enough, you're supposed to stand, remove your cap and face the flag. Me and a couple of others hadn't removed our caps so I suppose I wasn't much of a patriot that day.

I used to recoil at the thought of being associated with patriotism. My country right or wrong seemed to mean follow the leader when he's wrong with all the consequences that surely follow. Will my obituary not have a flag in front of it because I didn't remove my hat?

At the ballgame they did announce that gentlemen should remove their hats, but it's difficult to follow authority. I suppose the ladies are held to a different standard of patriotism. They are delicate beings who keep the homes and have babies so they are allowed to wear caps during the Star Spangled Banner. I remember being at a Cub game when some twerp was running around as the anthem started telling everyone to remove their cap. He should get a flag in front of his obit.

I know that many people opposed to our nation's policies and direction, including VVAW members, have thoughtfully concluded that opposition to bad policy is what's really patriotic. I'm moving that way although it's hard to associate with that word. The main reason I hate to be a patriot is from observing patriots. Maybe they're "patriots."

That Sox game happened to be on a Sunday, and Major League Baseball has determined that every Sunday game would have God Bless America sung during the seventh inning. I then looked around, and sure enough, everyone stood, most everyone faced the flag and about ninety percent of the caps were removed. I looked that up also and could find no protocol for God Bless America. Maybe that will change after enough ballgames. We are going to sing God Bless America during the seventh inning until when? The end of the war on terrorism? Cheney said that would last fifty years. In fifty years we'll sing it three times a game. That'll show 'em.

God Bless America always confused me. Was this like asking God to bless this country? Some people sing it as if they are demanding that God bless the country. When Irving Berlin wrote the tune in the early part of the twentieth century he phrased it so because he was thankful and wanted to say so. That was because he was a Jewish emigre from a Europe that was increasingly persecuting Jews. He needed to get away from that, and this country took him in, and he wrote God Bless America. Of course there were Jews this country refused to take, and they maybe composed different tunes. But Irving Berlin meant it as thankfulness. The announcers at the ball parks on Sunday (and 9-11) let it be known that they were singing God Bless America to support this country. It's more like "in your face." We'll show 'em who is number one. That's how patriots do it.

There's another thing that bothers me about God Bless America. What if you really buy into this chauvinism, but you're an Atheist? Or a Muslim? Or a Buddhist? But I digress.

I remember the good old days when I was young and going to Cub games. Unlike many ball parks there was no national anthem sung at Cubs Park (Wrigley Field). The owner of the Cubs was P. K. Wrigley who never could put together a good team. However, he was right on about not playing the national anthem. He thought it was gratuitous patriotism. He finally started playing it during Vietnam because he thought it appropriate with a war going on. Alas, the Cubs have been playing it ever since, but it hasn't helped them to get to a World Series. At least P.K. had it right about gratuitous patriotism.

I don't suppose our government has ever been "of the people, by the people and for the people." Maybe that's the ideal to which real patriots strive. Working toward that ideal seems more patriotic than giving lip service to a government and its policies when those policies are detrimental. It's more patriotic than removing your hat and facing the flag.

Then there's another aspect of patriotism. Sometimes it's manipulated by politicians to promote what they want—like dubious wars. The key to this concept (and the reason we are conditioned to stand for God Bless America) may have been uttered by LBJ during Vietnam when he said, "If history indicts us for Vietnam it will be for fighting a war without trying to stir up patriotism." That cynical viewpoint is part of their arsenal. I imagine there are plenty of reasons for history to indict LBJ because of Vietnam, and I don't think stirring up patriotism was possible after a couple of years of that, but he recognized the role that "patriotism" plays in promoting such debacles.

The Bush presidents got the message for their Iraq wars. They got public opinion and patriotism stirred up and the Senate to affirm war. Real patriotic dudes. However, the second of these two wars lasted too long and anti-war patriotism took hold as the nation got tired of its lying leaders. Leading up to these wars as well as the various wars on terror, they liked to use veterans to promote war. Those feelings might be sincere, but it's not patriotism when our country is fighting somewhere where it shouldn't be.

Maybe patriotism means helping to improve the lot of the 99%. Work for "of the people, by the people and for the people." Maybe it's patriotic to rebel. Come to think of it, there was a rebel or two way back when. Maybe I could get adjusted to this patriot thing.

Bill Shunas is a Vietnam veteran, author and VVAW member in the Chicago chapter.