A weeklong birthday bash

Patriotism is ‘comradeship and unity’

The following are excerpts from the remarks given by Karl Ivey, a retired Army officer, who gave the keynote address at Apalachicola’s July 3 celebration. A self-described Army Brat and grew up on Army bases in Japan, France and around the US, Ivey is the son of paratrooper who went on to West Point and later became a paratrooper and Ranger serving in the 82d Airborne Division, then on to Vietnam where I served with the 173d Airborne Brigade. After attending law school, he returned to active duty and had assignments in Germany, NATO headquarters in Belgium, the 101st Airborne Division and finally as the commanding general’s legal advisor at the Special Forces School.

What is patriotism? Patriotism is proudly loving your country, accepting the validity of its general historical path and caring how the future treats you and your nation. Next, patriotism is Identifying with or having a feeling of comradeship or unity with those who feel the same as you. And then there is the devotion or duty you feel you owe to your country by being part of something bigger than yourself. It is shown by personal actions often involving minor inconveniences and even sacrifices.
We have a long history, a full heritage of our forefathers who acted sacrificially and with extreme efforts to accomplish the wondrous things that gave us freedom, economic freedom, economic strength and security. We grew up seeing and hearing about family and neighbors who stood up to face challenges while never wavering in their choices as they set an example for each of us.
Up until the last two decades we had an education system that focused on the history of our nation’s founding, teaching the reasons for the American Revolution, the advances made as our country grew industrially and demographically. We learned that the national seal’s words “E pluribus unum” meant “Out of many, one.” And we learned that our national motto, “In God We Trust” has been a description of what our founders and later generations felt was why our land and mixture of various peoples were so blessed. 

We used to have choir in schools where we were taught those patriotic songs we know 
And we said the Pledge Of Allegiance at the start of our school day
Military service is often a family thing, with fathers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, brothers having served. Their stories, their obvious pride in their service, and expectations within the family are all reasons why young men and women volunteer for military service. Of course many join for technical training or even to have a job, gain experience, and perhaps save some money before deciding on a career. The G.I. Bill is a fine incentive to attract volunteers.
Having been immersed in the close comradeship while together bearing sacrifices, and suffering together draws the military into cohesive groups capable of accomplishing unthinkable feats of bravery because they are among their military fellows, which becomes their family away from home. All have the same goals of mission accomplishment and seeing that the man next to you is able to make it through the challenge at hand. Those who have been through the crucible of the military have a closeness rarely achieved in our civilian life outside of police or fire departments. That common bond with efforts or sacrifices for the nation’s well being is, as we discussed, the foundation of patriotism
Political candidates often wrap themselves in the flag touting their military service as a way to show their additional qualifications to the voters. Some politicians gravitate toward patriotic pronouncements even if they had no military experience because they know veterans and their families are a voting block that regularly vote in high percentages vs non-veteran voters. And some politicians push patriotism to help them appear sympathetic to the big money industries that want Congress to buy their new weapon system. This is the Military-Industrial Complex that Eisenhower cautioned against.
Media attention often focuses on patriotism because they too see the benefits of our nation and hold such dearly. Many want to be seen as part of the people by reporting patriotic community events and because they know that such news is favored by their viewers/readers.
Lastly, Americans are a mixed bag of many ethnicities, cultures and former nationalities. It is our freedom to become as great as you are able, which helps many to see this as the best nation on earth. It is why some of the most outwardly patriotic citizens are those who came here legally and after years of effort and study passed the citizenship test and were granted the blessing that they had longed for. American citizenship.
But many, who were born here and thus received citizenship with no effort whatsoever do not hold our nation so dear. 
…..As you’d expect, most veterans accept that not everybody can serve the nation as they did, but that lack of military service does not make a person a lesser patriot just as being a veteran does not make veterans better patriots. 
Not all can serve. Overall we have about 6% of our population that has or are serving in our military; 41% of my generation 75 years and older served. But of today’s young generation (18 to 34 years) only 3% have served. In today’s 18 to 25 age group less than 2% are veterans or serving in our military. 
Patriots serve their nation when they register and vote. But before voting, they study the issues and check out both competing candidates to vote for the one who will better uphold the Constitution. They participate in governing by not trying to avoid jury duty. Yes, it is an inconvenience but patriots understand the need for justice to be evenhanded and that fair play in court cases is necessary to validate that government treats even the most heinous criminal or odious litigant exactly as the law requires. 
Veterans are very appreciative when some stranger sees our ball caps showing our prior service and says “thanks for your service.” But if you really want to go the extra mile, don’t put folks into office who are warhawks that want to send forces to places where we have no threats to our security or economy. 
And lastly we veterans want each patriot to mandate our schools teach civics and history of this great nation. But not from the point of view of all that our nation has done wrong, which has happened again and again. Instead, we veterans want our patriots to keep our school leadership focused on teaching what is good about our nation and why we have a republic and not a democracy and the genius of our founding fathers in what they drafted into our Constitution.
They did not want life dominated by politicians. They wanted a society made up of free individuals. They believed every human being has “unalienable rights” to life, liberty and (justly acquired) property.
The blueprints created by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution gradually created the freest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world. 
Patriots recognize that as individuals, we are not perfect and that no person elected to office will ever be perfect. Moreover, not one govt bureaucrat will ever be perfect, so we must as patriots require accountability and responsibility from those in government, at all levels, just as we face accountability in our jobs, when we too, fall short of expected standards.