[Announce] July 4th op-ed

[announce-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

From:	"Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>

Friends:  Pasted below is an op-ed article Dick Flacks and I wrote 
for
the LA Times on July 4th about progressive patriotism. A longer 
version
appeared in the History News Network website:
http://historynewsnetwork.org/articles/article.html?id=827. This, in
turn, is an updated version of our June 3 article in The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020603
<http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020603&s=dreier> 
&s=dreier. A
belated happy July 4th!
 
Peter
********************************************************** 
Peter Dreier 
E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics 
Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Program 
Occidental College 
1600 Campus Road 
Los Angeles, CA 90041 
Phone: (323) 259-2913 
FAX: (323) 259-2734 
 
 <http://www.latimes.com/> latimes.com	 	
  _____  

 
<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-
dreier4jul04.story
?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcomment%2Dopinions>
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-
dreier4jul04.story?
coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcomment%2Dopinions 

COMMENTARY


New Life in Old Symbols


Issues of earlier times find modern contexts.

By PETER DREIER and DICK FLACKS
Peter Dreier teaches politics and public policy at Occidental College
and is co-author of "Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st
Century"(University Press of Kansas, 2001). Dick Flacks teaches
sociology at UC Santa Barbara and is author of "Making History: 
The
American Left and the American Mind" (Columbia University Press, 
1989).

July 4 2002

This Fourth of July is likely to be the most fervent in many years.
Since Sept. 11, the nation has seen a dramatic increase in public
expressions of patriotism, including displays of the flag, songs,
parades and red, white and blue everything. Most pundits interpret 
this
as a sign that the nation is in a conservative mood, but the reality is
more complicated. Loyalty to country is neither conservative nor
liberal. How one expresses one's patriotism depends on the core 
values
one associates with the United States.

A case in point is the current controversy over the Pledge of
Allegiance. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the 
words
"under God" in the pledge violate the 1st Amendment was an 
incredible
act of bad political timing. Thanks to the uproar, however, 
Americans
learned a valuable history lesson. The original version of the pledge
did not include that phrase or any reference to religion. "Under God"
was added by Congress in 1954 when many politicians thought the 
nation
was threatened by godless communism. Lost in the public dispute is 
any
understanding of what its author, Francis Bellamy, was trying to
accomplish--or its relevance for today. 
 
 Bellamy, a Baptist minister, wrote the pledge in 1892 during the 
Gilded
Age, when reformers were outraged by the behavior of corporate 
robber
barons who were exploiting workers, gouging consumers and 
corrupting
politics with their money. Bellamy was a leading Christian socialist 
who
hoped that the pledge, and especially the line "one nation indivisible
with liberty and justice for all," would promote a more egalitarian
vision. Bellamy penned the pledge for Youth's Companion, a 
magazine for
young people. A few years earlier, the magazine had sponsored a 
largely
successful campaign to sell American flags to public schools. In 
1891,
the magazine hired Bellamy to organize a campaign to celebrate 
the 400th
anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery. Bellamy gained 
the
support of the National Education Assn., President Benjamin 
Harrison and
Congress for a national ritual observance in the schools, and he 
wrote
the Pledge of Allegiance as part of the program's flag salute 
ceremony.

Bellamy's view that unbridled capitalism, materialism and 
individualism
betrayed America's promise was widely shared in the 19th and early 
20th
centuries. Many American radicals and progressive reformers 
proudly
asserted their patriotism. To them, the U.S. stood for basic 
democratic
values: economic and social equality, mass participation in politics,
free speech and civil liberties, elimination of the second-class
citizenship of women and racial minorities, a welcome mat for the
world's oppressed people.

Most Americans are unaware that much of our patriotic culture--
including
many of the symbols and songs that have become increasingly 
popular
since Sept. 11--were created by writers of decidedly left-wing
sympathies.

Consider Emma Lazarus' words, written in 1883 and inscribed on 
the
Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled 
masses
yearning to breathe free." She was a well-respected poet, a strong
supporter of Henry George's "socialistic" single-tax program and a
friend of William Morris, a leading British socialist. Her welcome to
the "wretched refuse" of the Earth was meant to project an inclusive 
and
egalitarian definition of the American dream.

The words to "America the Beautiful" were written in 1893 by 
Katherine
Lee Bates, a professor of English at Wellesley College. Bates was a 
poet
and a lesbian whose book "America the Beautiful and Other Poems"
expressed outrage over U.S. imperialism in the Philippines. She 
was part
of progressive reform circles in the Boston area concerned about 
labor
rights, urban slums and women's suffrage. The poem's final line--
"and
crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea"--is an 
appeal
for social justice.

Many Americans consider Woody Guthrie's song "This Land Is Your 
Land,"
penned in 1940, to be our unofficial national anthem. Guthrie was
inspired to write it as an answer to Irving Berlin's popular "God 
Bless
America," which he thought failed to recognize that America 
belonged to
"the people." The lyrics reflect Guthrie's fusion of patriotism and
support for the underdog. He celebrates the nation's natural beauty 
and
bounty but criticizes the country for its failure to share its riches,
reflected in the song's last and least-known verse: "One bright 
sunny
morning in the shadow of the steeple / By the relief office I saw my
people. / As they stood hungry I stood there wondering / If this land
was made for you and me?"

In recent decades, Bruce Springsteen has most closely followed in 
the
Guthrie tradition. From "Born in the USA" to his songs about Tom 
Joad
(the militant protagonist in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath") 
to
"Land of Hope and Dreams" to his "My City of Ruins," which he 
recently
dedicated to the victims of the Sept. 11 tragedy, Springsteen has
championed the downtrodden while challenging the nation to live up 
to
its ideals. 
 
 Every day, millions of Americans recite the Pledge of Allegiance, 
sing
"American the Beautiful" or "This Land Is Your Land" and memorize 
the
words on the Statue of Liberty without knowing the names of their
authors or the political context in which they were written. The
progressive authors of much of the nation's patriotic iconography
rejected blind nationalism, militaristic drumbeating and sheep-like
conformism. They believed that America's core claims--fairness,
equality, freedom, justice--were their own.

The war on terrorism has diverted attention from the reality that the
U.S. now confronts a new Gilded Age. The gap between rich and 
poor is
widening. The unbridled greed and political influence-peddling
demonstrated by many executives of large corporations has 
triggered
another wave of public outrage. The behavior of large HMOs and
pharmaceutical companies angers Americans who can't afford the 
cost of
basic health care. The growing power of American-based global 
firms that
show no loyalty to this country in terms of where they move their 
jobs,
the taxes they pay or the environment they pollute has led to a
grass-roots movement for fairer trade.

The recent controversy over the pledge has focused on the words 
"under
God." But if Francis Bellamy were alive today, he'd be more 
concerned
that the actions of big business and many politicians were 
undermining
his vision of a nation that promises "liberty and justice for all." 
 
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
<http://www.latimes.com/archives> latimes.com/archives. For 
information
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www.lats.com/rights.