In case you were feeling hopelessly unpatriotic, get that chin up. The national political body in this country actually has a remedy for you: an American flag pin.
While watching highlights of the 2010 State of the Union address, I was pleasantly surprised that my feelings of dread for our society were gently replaced with a blinding sense of patriotism. I spent the better part of 10 minutes zoning out trying to ascertain why the sweet emotion of national pride was swelling in my heart. Unfortunately during those 10 minutes of self-discovery I missed the discussion on health care reform and other such nuances.
Just as I was about to concede my emotional Afghanistan to the Taliban of of Laziness, I figured it out. The pin. More specifically, the pins! The exact moment of epiphany arrived as I stared at morose Republicans sitting through wave after wave of applause. Then it hit me. What could possibly bridge a divide that has only been widening for the last 8 years to the point of non-reconciliation? Is there some common ground that could serve as a jumping off point for future political progress? Is there one thing that our politicians can agree on? There is! American flag pins.
I don't know why I didn't think of it before. How could I have been so blind? I should have picked up on this years ago during the Presidential primary season when controversy exploded over then Senator Obama's decision to not wear the holy pin (click me) on the campaign trail. Of course, that mistake was corrected last night. He had his pin! And here I thought that the country was lost to a liberal backing, muslim loving, Al-Queda supporting, elderly slaying, deficit spending, anti-white pot smoker. Thankfully all of those irrational thoughts have been dispelled nationwide since he started wearing a little American pride on his lapel. It is amazing how much of America's political ill will simply disappears when the national flag is proudly displayed.
The pin is really just a message, and that message uniformly says, "Hey friend, we may disagree, but guess what? We are both Americans. Just in case you weren't sure. You know, because although I live here, in the United States that is, I wasn't wearing my pin before. So there should be no doubt that I love my country now. Because I am wearing this pin. It's an American flag. We are both Americans. I can tell that because you also have a pin." One message. One people.
It is this kind of even ground from which the next era of American success will spring. Unemployment, resolved. Healthcare reform, passed. War, over. These problems somehow seem insignificant now. The pin shows us that we are all American. Deep down we still don't share the same values, but the pin makes us think we do. That is the true power of the pin. That pin is the passport into Americana, and non-Americans are on the no-buy list. Of course, the powe
r of the pin has been used before by people who were brainwashed and blinded by their own social idealology. This kind of thing obviously could never happen in America, but it certainly was a troubling time for lapel pins. Pins were forced underground, their name dragged through the mud. Unfortunately for politicians, their power was almost lost forever.Cue 2001. A couple of terrorist attacks had just torn the country apart, and the people were scared. They needed something to let them know that their neighbor was not going to detonate C4 on their porch. They needed more than just an emblem, they needed a shield. They needed something that said, "Terrorize this!" They needed the pin. And pin is what they got.
This is a photo list of all the Presidents of the United States: click me. Any two stand out? Notice the year? Here I thought that people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the other influential Presidents were Americans. Turns out, they weren't. No pin, not American. This has quickly become a depressing exercise for me. Turns out, no one but present day politicians wear pins. Einstein, Edison, MLK, and millions of others were sadly pinless. Were they all un-American too? What about John Edwards? He wore a pin. In fact, he still does. Do I have more in common with him than the legions of pinless people out there? What about our soldiers? They all don't wear pins. They have flags on their sleeves, but don't have flag pins on their uniforms. Do they not even support themselves? Wow, this has gotten really confusing all of a sudden. If some people wear the pin, and some people don't, who are the real Americans?
My advice for figuring out this question: Stop being a moron. Who cares about a piece of metal? Being an American is by definition as simple as being a citizen of the United States. That is a pretty easy qualification for anyone born in this country. What is not so easy, is being a positive force for change for all Americans. Therefore, as we evaluate what we should do to help this country, forget the pin, ignore the typical political rhetoric, and put aside partisan feelings. Instead, look to what things you can do to make America better. That could mean voting for a person based on their actions and not your party line. That could mean listening to another person's point of view. That could mean actually researching issues that are important to you. Actions make people patriotic, not decorations.
