American Patriotism is scam.

Chapter ten titled, “Who is the patriot.” When I first read the title, my personal schema of the word “patriot” would be: A citizen, but not just any citizen—an American citizen, whom loves their country, forever respects and honors the US Constitution, specifically the right to carry, really enjoy the, what’s it called, “American pastime sports” such as football, baseball, and basketball, they enthusiastically wear red, white, and blue—and maybe sometimes camouflage. That is my genera perception of who and what is a patriot.

The chapter starts with an opening quote from Timothy Snyder, “A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well, and wishing it would do better.” I thought to myself, okay, so Tim’s answer to who is a patriot is essentially, has universal values, what kind— not completely sure, has certain beliefs or values by which he evaluates his country, and wishes for it, better. To me it sounds a little passive, like oh, a patriot is someone that shares the same principles, same behavior, maybe share the same ethics as, who? Its government or its people? A patriot uses their common universal standards to simply pass judgment about their nation, and then just wish the best for it, not participate or activate, not have a voice— just hope for the better. Hmm, now what does this quote have to do with this chapter?

The author then expresses feelings of such… scorn and disapproval by declaring that since 9/11 when the Twin Towers fell, and for about 20 years after that event, there as been nonstop business exploitation in the American sports industry. The repetitive acknowledgment of military troops, the various commercials of wounded soldiers, the endless advertising of military-themed sports memorabilia such as camouflage jerseys, hats, and mugs, followed by homage rituals before and after games—everything is just overdone to the point it doesn’t feel natural, and why hasn’t anyone else noticed this? Basically, after 9/11, certain corporations have used the emotional and tragic event to remind their citizens to honor and respect their troops, and at the same time, make money off that “support”—distracting the nation from true reality. American sport associations and military forces are in it together: implicitly convincing their sports fans that being a US patriot not only means to support and love your country, but ultimately, support the military, and ultimately, join. Being an American patriot means they love their country, and should want to serve it. Patriots also honor those that have served and died tragically doing so because, remember 9/11? And what more can one do to demonstrate that honor? Purchase your favorite football player’s military themed, camo jersey and wear it at their games. Oh, and maybe if you feel like it, join the military too to demonstrate your die hard patriotism. 

Then, there are those who are labeled as “dissenters” or in other words, freethinkers, nonconformists—or to them (the corporations making money), “traitors”, recognized that sports teams were using this generic perception of the military as propaganda. This propaganda in hand with the enjoyable event of watching one’s favorite sports motivates this forced patriotism and is in fact, a big phony.

Then, detailed 150 page report titled, Tackling Paid Patriotism, released by 2 Republican senators of Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, uncovered that the Pentagon were spending millions of taxpayer dollars (approximately $6.8 million) on sports teams to stage military events such as those heartfelt homecoming ceremonies and military homage rituals. The advocacy for US military troops weren’t authentic, nor real, nor in honor of those who lost their lives to 9/11, and its true purpose is to make money off of the nation’s emotional trauma. Such a strange and corrupt way not to just make money, but to get the country to enlist, wouldn’t you think?

After McCain and Flake’s published article, one would know that their criticism is in fact legitimate and shocking because the disapproval didn’t come from a communist nor extreme liberal perspective, it came from “true supporters of the US military” aka the Republicans themselves—calling out the fact that the nation’s patriotism is fake, staged, and paid for. From the heart felt half-time homecoming ceremonies, the first pitch of a baseball game by a soldier, the firing homage rituals— all a gimmick and taken care of by American taxpayers. Emphasis on being paid for by taxpayers, because there are schools and roads that are in need of funding, but instead it gets spent on a fabricated American culture slash tradition.

The Army, National Guard, Air Force, and Navy were all in on it with gigantic reputable sport companies such as NASCAR, MLB (major league baseball), NBA (national basketball association), NFL (national football league), NHL (national hockey league), MLS (major league soccer), and NCAA (national collegiate athletic association). 

America’s need for reconstruction of roads and need to invest into the nation’s education can wait, but lets spend $280,000 for the Army National Guard to sponsor the Boston Bruins Military Appreciation night, $80k to provide and advertise military perks and discounts, $49k to sing “God Bless America”—like really? $10,000 for recognition of our US soldiers and their families, oh, and those crowd shots in the audience of our troops attending games to represent their city—staged. That’s not even the end of the bill.

There was this occurrence called the “March on 245”. In 2009, Jimmie Solomon and other major players planned some afternoon lunch or something to discuss their views about the numbers of decreasing black athletes in baseball, but instead word got out about their off the record meeting. It turned into a disaster and resulted getting scolded by MLB commissioner Selig. Though the meeting was suppose to be small and intimate, they basically rolled super deep and it was said to be a fascinating site seeing all the African American MLB players consolidating on Park Avenue in their fancy tailored suits. But the general gist is that you can be the country’s most paid athlete and proudly represent your minority but you are robbed of your First Amendment right and apparently the right for their minority to gather and speak about the sport they all play. Why not? The meeting seemed like it was along the lines of simply acknowledging, discussing and honoring how far African Americans have came in the white man’s world of sports. Seems rather benign, since Adam Jones had explicitly quoted that they (the athletes) would never participate in any fashion of protesting because it’s a white man sport. That it so irking that any minority has to feel that way about their own love for a sport they share with the white man, but the fact that they have the respect in regards to it is very admirable on their part. It’s just sad, because I would think part of being a major league athlete means being a leader, they have fans, little kids that want to be just like them, they have people all of over the nation buying and wearing their last name to represent them. But in today’s day and age, for the sake of the huge sporting companies’ revenue and reputation, our admirable sports players are essentially silent pawns. 

Reading this very lengthy and detailed article was quite an eye opener for me in regards to how the military recruit their numbers, or at least have tried to. I was also under the impression that our nation’s love for baseball, football, or basketball were purely America’s culture, or the name of this article’s file, heritage. But the fact that it is simply capitalism at its finest, is also not a surprise… It just doesn’t make any sense to continue spending the People’s (yknow like people of the United States of America) money on basically “military advertising” when our enlistments rates are yet still at their absolute lowest. I guess desperate times calls for desperate measures, but their advertising tactics have not shown any improvement in their numbers. Also, the fact that major athletes of practically any sport don’t have freedom of speech is disheartening but at the same time not a surprise in this day an age. It’s like yes, you get to play your favorite sport, represent your minority, get paid very nicely, have your own video game character, but you’re forever branded by the team that you play for and you cannot discuss nor participate in any politics, per the athletic contract. But anyways, the general conclusion of this article revealed to me personally is the respect for US military, the nation’s love for sports, our major athletes’ passion for being an American major league player, the American principles of having the right of speech and mental independence, is fake, artificial, and no longer honored.