In fact, during a search for a particular photo I came across an article about me winning a city wide writing competition as a 7th grader about What American Patriotism Means to Me sponsored by the Little Rock and North Little Rock Chambers of Commerce.
My family had just returned from my Dad's sabbatical year where I had attended a German school and we had travelled throughout Europe from the northern scandinavian countries down into Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Turkey.
Bare with me while I share excerpts of my 12 year old version of patriotism... Of course, it began with the definition of patriotism: devotion to one's country. I did a paragraph with my family's background of being jewish, having a German mother who faced the hardships of war as a child in Germany and a father who served in the Navy in WWII.
(Remember typewriters?)
It wasn't until the following summer when I turned 13 and was an exchange student in Mexico that I began to learn my country was far from perfect during even if I wasn't the one making U.S. policy, I did feel responsible.
It was the beginning of my education on colonialism. The stuff left out of our history books. Our greed reigned over other people's livelihood whether it was land acquisition, training soldiers/ leaders for other countries, due to NAFTA the US grew corn so cheap, Mexican farmers starved and couldn't make a living and had either go to the city/ move here, we have tried to monopolize oil, poisoned well water with drilling, on and on...
So my social consciousness towards injustice took a big learning curve as history filled in my 13 year old naivete, the understanding of my white privilege and that challenging the status quo is patriotic. The fact is we can be better...
The following youtube video may answer some important questions: Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
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