MONROE - Lately, a lot has been made about lapel pins.
Lapel pins of the American flag, to be specific.
Apparently, if you wear a lapel pin, you're automatically patriotic. If you don't, you aren't patriotic.
Last week, during the Fourth of July celebrations, I was able to sit in the front yard and watch fireworks in Monroe, Brodhead, Beloit and Evansville. It was quiet. There wasn't a sound, except for the breeze rustling through the trees and the songs of frogs by the pond across the road.
But I could see them, the fireworks.
And it made me appreciate what the day means.
John Adams, who signed the Declaration of Independence and served as second president of the United States, said he saw the Fourth of July as a day for fireworks, parades and celebrating freedom.
As I watched the fireworks, I thought about how people all across the United States were watching fireworks and celebrating. I felt a sense of pride that we, as a nation, were honoring the sacrifices made by others as they struggled to gain independence.
And it made me think of what patriotism is about.
Patriotism, to me, is that sense of pride, that unexplained feeling, you get when you see fireworks, when you see the flag and when you hear the "Star Spangled Banner." It's the feeling you get as you see veterans marching in parades and you realize what they did for all of us. It's that emotion of seeing the graves at the cemetery on Memorial Day as you listen to speeches about those who gave what Abraham Lincoln called "the last full measure of devotion."
It's the feeling that we can do anything if we just put our minds to it. We can win a world war, we can put a man on the moon and we can accomplish things other nations only dream about.
That, to me, is patriotism.
Flag lapel pins have nothing to do with it.
Wearing a flag lapel pin doesn't make me any more patriotic than wearing a Packers No. 4 jersey makes me Brett Favre.
But what really annoys me are those people who wear the lapel pin and claim to be patriotic Americans while stepping on the Constitution. Those people who quickly jump up to say the Pledge of Allegiance, while trying to find out how to spy on our own citizens. Those people who proclaim their support for our troops while sending them back to Iraq for the third, fourth or fifth time.
It bothers me when people look at us and tell us that we should live in fear rather than telling us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
So before we criticize those who don't wear flag lapel pins, we should ask ourselves if the people who are wearing them are only pretending to care about our country.
- Brian Gray is a reporter at
The Monroe Times.He can be reached at bgray@themonroetimes.com.
Lapel pins of the American flag, to be specific.
Apparently, if you wear a lapel pin, you're automatically patriotic. If you don't, you aren't patriotic.
Last week, during the Fourth of July celebrations, I was able to sit in the front yard and watch fireworks in Monroe, Brodhead, Beloit and Evansville. It was quiet. There wasn't a sound, except for the breeze rustling through the trees and the songs of frogs by the pond across the road.
But I could see them, the fireworks.
And it made me appreciate what the day means.
John Adams, who signed the Declaration of Independence and served as second president of the United States, said he saw the Fourth of July as a day for fireworks, parades and celebrating freedom.
As I watched the fireworks, I thought about how people all across the United States were watching fireworks and celebrating. I felt a sense of pride that we, as a nation, were honoring the sacrifices made by others as they struggled to gain independence.
And it made me think of what patriotism is about.
Patriotism, to me, is that sense of pride, that unexplained feeling, you get when you see fireworks, when you see the flag and when you hear the "Star Spangled Banner." It's the feeling you get as you see veterans marching in parades and you realize what they did for all of us. It's that emotion of seeing the graves at the cemetery on Memorial Day as you listen to speeches about those who gave what Abraham Lincoln called "the last full measure of devotion."
It's the feeling that we can do anything if we just put our minds to it. We can win a world war, we can put a man on the moon and we can accomplish things other nations only dream about.
That, to me, is patriotism.
Flag lapel pins have nothing to do with it.
Wearing a flag lapel pin doesn't make me any more patriotic than wearing a Packers No. 4 jersey makes me Brett Favre.
But what really annoys me are those people who wear the lapel pin and claim to be patriotic Americans while stepping on the Constitution. Those people who quickly jump up to say the Pledge of Allegiance, while trying to find out how to spy on our own citizens. Those people who proclaim their support for our troops while sending them back to Iraq for the third, fourth or fifth time.
It bothers me when people look at us and tell us that we should live in fear rather than telling us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
So before we criticize those who don't wear flag lapel pins, we should ask ourselves if the people who are wearing them are only pretending to care about our country.
- Brian Gray is a reporter at
The Monroe Times.He can be reached at bgray@themonroetimes.com.
