The Love of America.

"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect." ~Adlai Stevenson

Liberty.

"Liberty, according to my metaphysics...is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power." -- John Adams

Patriotism and Protectionism

With the conflicts being considerable during these days of various stimulus or rescue plans and the economic issues severely affecting the United States of America and virtually every other global economy, it is important to understand the terms being tossed about in media discussion, often times being undefined and misused.

What is protectionism?

"Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between nations, through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other restrictive government regulations designed to discourage imports, and prevent foreign take-over of local markets and companies. This policy is closely aligned with anti-globalization, and contrasts with free trade, where government barriers to trade are kept to a minimum." -- Wikipedia

What is patriotism?

"Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country...Among the ancient Greeks, patriotism consisted of notions concerning language, religious traditions, ethics, law and devotion to the common good, rather than pure identification with a nation-state...Scholar J. Peter Euben writes that for the Greek philosopher Socrates, "patriotism does not require one to agree with everything that his country does and would actually promote analytical questioning in a quest to make the country the best it possibly can be."...individual responsibility to fellow citizens is an inherent component of patriotism...Patriotism implies a value preference for a specific civic or political community." -- Wikipedia

Essentially this means that to want to have products and services created by our own country, this amazing United States of America, and to desire to have those jobs available to our citizens is essentially patriotic. We are not necessarily saying that we do not want to have success in other countries or that we do not want to continue to trade with other countries. However, we are saying that we want our own country to thrive and our own citizens to live well, with availability in our economy for their means to be met with honest work on products and services we can be truly proud of.

The desire to promote products and services that are made in the U.S.A. is a patriotic duty, a desire for America to succeed and flourish.

Patriotism in an Obama-nation.

As you read and watched in my Friday, January 23rd, post, many citizens of this great country, this United States of America, are pledging their allegiance to Obama, instead of the flag.

Is this patriotism?

No. Patriotism is defined as "love of and/or devotion to one's country." -- Wikipedia

"In both ancient and modern visions of patriotism, individual responsibility to fellow citizens is an inherent component of patriotism."

Be there no mistake that pledging your allegiance to Obama is no patriotism. He is only a symbol of our nation. Those who pledged their allegiance to Obama in the video posted yesterday were stating that they promised things such as being a better Father, a better neighbor, to take better care of their world and so on. Why wouldn't someone do those things as a natural practice on a daily basis because of a personal desire to do so?

What do you think about that video and the pledging allegiance to Obama?