The patriot way

Today is Patriot Day, a day most of us refer to as 9/11. In the U.S., Patriot Day occurs annually on Sept. 11 in memory of the victims who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Though not a federal holiday, Patriot Day and the days surrounding it have been declared national days of prayer, service, and remembrance by every U.S. president since 2002. Its observance typically features moments of silence, reading the names of victims, publicly flying the U.S. flag at half-staff or displaying it at our homes, sharing lessons learned from 9/11 on social media, and other such events.

In the early 2000s at about the time of the 9/11 attacks, a case called Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow was being fought in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A California dad sued his daughter’s school district, claiming that the public school practice of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and its mention of God violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The Ninth Circuit agreed in its 2002 ruling but was ultimately overturned in 2004 by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural grounds, with no decision on the merits.

The case fostered much public debate at the time. I remember it well because I was at Maple Dell scout camp with a bunch of teenage Troop 213 Boy Scouts when the uproar was prominent in the news.

Some of the young men were vaguely aware of the debate, but most were just being boys and largely oblivious. The adult leaders, on the other hand, were immersed in the controversy and the politics of it all.

Each morning at camp, both youth and adults met for an opening flag ceremony to start the day. Even though the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization that for generations has taught duty to God and country, some leader, or a group of leaders, decided that we weren’t going to recite the Pledge of Allegiance that morning and summarily dismissed the crowd to breakfast.

That’s when I witnessed one of the greatest public displays of patriotism that I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing. One of our troop leaders, Boulder City’s own Rodney Bean, had not only the wherewithal to spontaneously sense what was happening but also the courage to take immediate action. As the troops were quickly filing off of the parade grounds, he shouted for everyone to stop, do an about-face, and come to attention.

Then he told all of us in no uncertain terms that although breakfast might be beckoning and although we had every right to take sides in the lawsuit and debate details about separation of church and state, that day neither of those things would be occurring until each of us had first pledged our allegiance to God and country just like we had each promised to do. And so we all did exactly that and recited the Pledge of Allegiance in unison.

Prior to that day, I had gone through the motions of rotely reciting the Scout Oath dozens times before: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country … .” And I had also pledged my allegiance hundreds of times to the flag and the unity, government, and liberty for which it stands.” But until that singular act of patriotism, the words of the Pledge and the Oath had never truly been etched on my soul.

Elementary school teachers Clare Tobler and Harold Coe are other local patriots whom I’m not likely to ever forget. For years they spearheaded the Great American Award at Martha P. King Elementary School. Fifth-graders could earn the award by demonstrating that they had memorized the Preamble to the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, all of the 40-plus U.S. presidents, the 50 state capitals, and the Pledge of Allegiance.

During the school year, they also learned what it means to be a great American, or in other words, a patriot. And the curriculum culminated with the end-of-school Civil War reenactment, which was put on by the fifth-graders and attended by media outlets and crowds that filled BCHS’ football stadium to the brim. Fifth grade in Boulder City truly was a patriotic year for everyone.

My children were all Great Americans and fortunate beneficiaries of Mr. Tobler and Mr. Coe’s contagious patriotism. Those proud Americans reminded all of us of what it means to be a true patriot and helped my family to establish patriotic traditions of our own, including Fourth of July traditions and trips to our nation’s capital.

A patriot is a person who loves and vigorously supports his or her country, is prepared to fearlessly defend it, and is even willing to valiantly stand up for individual rights and against the tyrannies of government when absolutely necessary.

There’s no single model for patriotism. You can be a courageous patriot in many different ways.

The questions is, are you a true patriot? And what are you doing to demonstrate your patriotism with conviction and courage? Today is a great day to consider those questions and then resolve to follow through. Come to think of it, so is every day.

We all can take courage and be better patriots. Our community and the world are vastly better places when we do so.