CARLTON FLETCHER: As for ‘patriots,’ it’s about actions, not words

“Out into the cool of the evening strolls the pretender, Who started out so young and strong only to surrender.”

— Jackson Browne

The dictionary says a “patriot” is “a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.” Even with such a clear definition, there is a growing legion of individuals that is bent on changing the definition to suit their own purposes.

With the political divide in our country now a gaping chasm, some have taken to calling themselves “patriots” in that they have decided the way for our country to cure its ills is to adhere to the mindset of a younger America, many of them pointing to ideals of the post-WWII “Greatest Generation.” However, as great as that generation was, as bravely and heroically as its members fought not only to save the world from the megalomaniacal fantasies of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo but also to rebuild a nation that was slowly recovering from the Great Depression, we can’t point to its ideals and say “that is America.”

Because the Greatest Generation harbored prejudices that were the impetus for Jim Crow laws that treated former slaves, and indeed, all individuals of color, as if they were less than human. Their generation made laws that treated even the individuals of color who fought and died for their country as if they were second-class citizens, not worthy of the good life to which all men in a free country aspire.

Sadly, spurred by politicians who have built a shocking power base by playing on the fears and prejudices that led their forefathers to fight a war to preserve a way of life that had nothing at all to do with the Judeo-Christian principles on which this nation was founded, there are individuals today who harbor those same prejudices yet who are insisting that their efforts to bring back those “good ole days” — to make America great again, as it was — allows them the right to label themselves “patriots.”

You hear and read of their exploits, their attempts to label anyone who does not adhere to their definition of patriotism as “traitors,” and their desire to ostracize such individuals or worse.

But here’s the thing about that: If you are not adhering to the founding principal that, in America, all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with the same inalienable rights that these “patriots” enjoy, you are, by definition, the very opposite of patriots. If your vision of patriotism embraces only a certain group, then you are the variety of individual Thomas Paine (the original T Paine) called “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.” By dismissing other groups of Americans — groups who have the same rights as you — you are as much a traitor as those who took up arms against their country.

Being a patriot, if you want to get down to brass tacks, is hard. See, true patriots have to allow room for people who don’t believe as they do. They have to be willing to stand up for — not belittle or fight against — members of other ethnic groups, religions and political backgrounds. They are bound to abide by officials whose policies — more accurately, whose party — they oppose.

I’ve heard many of these self-proclaimed sunshine patriots, discussing groups whose actions are contrary to theirs, exclaim that such groups should be jailed, fought or even kicked out of “their” country for protesting against what they perceive as unfair policies.

Meanwhile, I’ve heard real patriots, men and women who actually fought and put their lives on the line, say, “I find the burning of our country’s flag an abominable action, but I will fight with everything I have to preserve individuals’ right to protest in whatever way they feel led.”

No, blurting some slogan and blindly following a politician or political group whose only concern is for self, does not make one a patriot. Not even close. But America could use a few real patriots about now. Unfortunately, too many of us don’t have the guts it takes to be one.