Extremely Lame

I’ve seen a number of outrages lately over some of the most idiotic things regarding patriotism. Or, to be more specific, the display of patriotism. Seemingly, if you don’t display the minimum amount of blind zeal for your country or if you show any neutral or positive acknowledgment of countries that are not the United States, then you are shunned as something less than a “Real American.”

Let’s start chronologically working our way backwards, shall we?

A school superintendent in Wisconsin is in agua caliente over one of the Spanish classes in one of his high schools saying the Pledge of Allegiance en español. The arguments from the outraged? Things such as it’s “disrespectful to the troops” and “Who do these Mexicans think they are saying the Pledge in Spanish? Don’t they know English is the official language in America?” These were the kinds of arguments posed on the local news website (and elsewhere) before the editor of the paper yanked it once “it got to be a racist thing.”

Never mind that the United States has never had an official language. While there are several states that have English as the official language of the state, Wisconsin is not one of those. In fact, Wisconsin’s constitution was written in English, German, and Norwegian because survey says…

“…it’s important that people understand the words.”

Thank you Superintendent Fjelstand, that’s the number one answer!

But that’s not what’s important. The important thing that the outraged seem completely oblivious to is the fact that you don’t have a bunch of brown people saying the Pledge in Spanish. It’s a bunch of white kids taking Spanish in high school. They get to translate it and say it over the P.A. one day out of the school year. Big freaking deal!

And disrespectful to the troops? Uhhh, how? I’m sure the thousands upon thousands of Hispanic members of the Armed Forces are so broken up that the Pledge is being said by some white kids in Wisconsin in their mother tongue. And the millions of non-Hispanic troops who rely on these very people to save their butts and vice versa? Yeah, I’m sure they’re real concerned too.

Thank you for your outrage for the benefit of our service personnel. It’s the jingoistic version of “for the children.”

That brings me to the idiocy of the flag pin as a demonstration of mock patriotism. The people who actually think this important are the same kinds of people who, a few years ago, riddled the back of their vehicles with those ridiculous yellow ribbons to show everyone else just how patriotic they were being. After we thought this idiocy had died down, last week it came back with a vengeance in that aberration of a debate on ABC. Some “person on the street” asked Obama about his not wearing a flag pin on his suits. Let’s not let facts get in the way of outrage. Like the fact that neither Clinton nor McCain wear flag pins either. Or the fact that this wasn’t just some random Pennsylvania voter; it was a plant. A couple weeks before the debate, she expressed her concerns to the New York Times. So ABC knew exactly where to look when they wanted someone to ask this ridiculous question.

Please, can we seriously get some non-partisan group and NOT a media organization to moderate these things? Please?

Finally, why does it seem that ever since September 11th, it seems that people are treating God Bless America as some sort of second national anthem? It has replaced “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” as what is sung as the 7th Inning Stretch in some places. I’ve never understood the difficulty to The Star Spangled Banner myself. It’s done to the tune of an old drinking song, how hard could it be? Hell, people are getting uppity when people don’t hold their hand over their heart during the song. What the hell is wrong with people? It’s not the National Anthem. It’s not the Pledge of Allegience. It’s a Broadway show tune.  No, seriously, written by Irving Berlin and used in the musical This is the Army.