I grew up during the Vietnam War, or at least I grew up watching the news of the Vietnam War with my father (yes, we watched CBS -- what else would we have watched?). Mine was a very strongly Democratic household -- Nixon was slime, and the jingoism of the "Love it or leave it" crowd made us all uncomfortable. My Dad served in the navy during WWII and was very proud of his service, but he was also always a thinking man, and I grew up knowing in my heart that there was something wrong with using a flag as a way of eliminating thought and critical analysis about my country.
I did not enjoy the flag waving aspect of the 4th of July for many years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was downright creepy to have these awful John Wayne wannabees talk to us at school, and I really think now that learning the Green Berets song to sing at a school assembly was a bit weird. I was, in other words, confused about what patriotism meant.
The Bicentennial gave that pride in my country back to me. The Bicentennial minutes every evening (you had fun guessing who would present any given night and what the topic might be), the Alistair Cooke's America, which was the most interesting history program I have still ever seen (sorry, Ken Burns, but you couldn't hold a candle to this guy), and the fact that I was finally getting to the point that I could read the writings of the founders of the country (Tom Paine is still a favourite -- "Sunshine Soldier and Summer Patriot" still sends shivers up my spine) without being confused. My father grew up in Boston, and when we went to visit we stayed with a friend of his in Lexington. My aunt (on my Mom's side) was a school teacher and she had her young students memorize Longfellow's poem -- it became so identified with her in her family's memory that her tombstone includes the first line of the poem.
In addition to everything else, I remember the years around the bicentennial by the musical "1776" which I saw in film, and on stage in Philadelphia (on the mall in front of Independence Hall in 1977 at a free production hosted by the National Park Service, I believe -- the clouds opened up and it poured on top of the tent in which the play was performed -- so my mom says. I don't really remember that part -- just remember how magical the evening was. Years later I went back to Philly to go to school -- I love that city).
I love the musical. It does what a fine stage play about history does. It provides glimpses of motivations, makes you smile and laugh, and makes you want to read more about the personalities and events. But it also is so much more -- there is truth here (truthiness?) about what is required in compromising, and how compromising to get to the greater good is sometimes justifiable. The absolutists on either side would not have been able to create a country. But those who believe and are/were willing to fight and die for their beliefs are honoured. These are all honourable men. Yes, it is an hagiography in a way. I don't have a problem with that. There were larger than life men and women (Abigail Adams plays a major role in the play, even though it is only through her letters). But they were still men and women. They were still our predecessors. They are the ones we need to live up to -- Jefferson and Adams, and the off-stage George Washington. What they did for us we need to honour and preserve. God grant, the effects of the present idiot will pass, more or less, but the work of these giants (Benjamin Franklin, Cesar Rodney, the many people discussed in the fine series Forgotten Founding Fathers by mkfox) will live as long as our country.
I hope you have seen the musical -- some of the songs are available on youtube. Just to whet your appetite, the argument of the hypocrisy of the north trying to eliminate slavery in the south is presented by Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, in "Molasses to Rum"
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There are many other excerpts -- the main songs from the movie, and the vote about whether to vote for independence unanimously ((youtube.
Thank you for joining me in this somewhat patriotic discussion...