Washington, Indiana - It's a long way from Washington, D.C., to Washington,
Ind., where my father was born a century ago next January and where I am
attending a Thomas family reunion. On the drive from Indianapolis, one
passes towns that could fill a Norman Rockwell album. My favorite is named
Freedom because, though the town has only a single flashing caution light,
it displays many flags. If I don't slow down, I will miss both.
Driving past miles of cornfields, listening to local radio stations that
still play music, not syndicated political talk, and carry commercials for
farm equipment and feed, I ponder what it means to be patriotic and to love
America.
Last week, senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said
that religion is not the exclusive property of conservative Christians. He
is right. Neither is patriotism a trademark of the Republican Party.
As with religion, some people on the right have used patriotism, which
should be a unifying theme, to divide Americans. My liberal friends love
America as much as I do. They might disagree on some, or all, of my
political and religious beliefs, but that does not make them less in love
with America, much less un-American.
Many political and religious liberals have family members who have served or
are serving their country in war and in peace. These have spilled their
blood and given their lives to guarantee our freedom to disagree and to
still live together.
Here in this Washington, I am told stories of how our family stuck together,
neighbor helping neighbor, during the Great Depression; of a grandfather who
was out of work at the B and O Railroad for two years; of employees with
more seniority than he who took a day off so he could work and earn some
money; of one of his sons (my uncle) who had a paper route and would bring
home eggs donated by subscribers.
Few here judged their neighbor's worth based on his or her political or
religious beliefs. They helped each other. This was the real America. When
the "boys" went off to war, they had total support from family, friends,
neighbors and all they left behind and for whose benefit they fought. When
those who survived came home, some voted for Democrats and some for
Republicans, but no one questioned their patriotism because of their
electoral or religious choices.
Last year, I visited Normandy, France for the first time. At the American
cemetery, there is not an "R" (for Republican) or "D" (for Democrat) on the
grave markers of those who died on D-Day.