Hope everyone had a very fine holiday.

This is a Patriot’s Journey post. Remember to check out the other Patriotic Journeyers: Drumwaster, The Bastage, Inessential Musings, and The Edge of Reason

Stephen Phillips and other soldiers in his Army MP company were battling insurgents when his phone was pressed against his Humvee. It redialed and called his parents in the small Oregon town of Otis.

Sandie Petee, Phillips’ mother, and her husband, Jeff Petee, weren’t home at the time of the call. They returned home to find a three-minute voice mail on their answering machine.

…

They heard shooting, swearing and shouted pleas for more ammunition on the phone call from their son.

“They were pinned down and apparently his barrel was overheating,” said Jeff Petee. “It’s something a parent really doesn’t want to hear. It’s a heck of a message to get from your son in Afghanistan.”

The three-minute call ended abruptly.

“You could hear him saying stuff like, he needs more ammo, or he needs another barrel,” said John Petee, Phillips’ brother. “At the end, you could hear a guy saying ‘Incoming! RPG!’ And then it cut off.”

*gulp*

Everyone’s fine.  The son survived the attack and his parents survived the phone message.

My friends M & A were visiting The Wife and I this weekend, and before they came up to The Secret Lair, they spent a day in Seattle. M & A are both well educated and have traveled across Europe quite extensively. They also both speak German fluently, so they tend to spend a lot of time in Germany and Austria. Hence, they are both well experienced in the culture.

They were recounting a tale to us of finding a coffee shop downtown and getting Lattes from a German Barista who was very proper, and clean cut with a short hair cut and round-rimmed glasses, and spoke impeccably, and did everything exactly right. As M was telling this tale, he made this observation:

The great thing about America is, people here are not afraid to make mistakes. In Europe, everything is so focused and proper and attention is paid to appearances, and getting it right all the time; and here, we just go full bore ahead and if it works, great, if not, we try something else.

I could not agree more. Our whole “Fuck It, Let’s Do It Already” attitude may have resulted in some incredibly spectacular failures in our history, and some of them have cost us lives, but I think if we look at the trends, we’ll see that that self-same motivation/determination/bravado/whatever you want to call it has given us more successes then failures. I think this is why the idea of the Nanny or Police state just irks me so much, as it wants to quell that attitude in the name of safety.

Don’t misunderstand, I LOVE safety, I live it. I drive safe cars (5 stars all around) with my seatbelt on, I ride a motorcycle with a full suit and a helmet. I wear ears and eyes when doing loud things that may create flying debris. Safety is important, but so is putting it all out there on the line. The trick is to find the balance between the two. Whenever practical, I look before I leap, but I am not afraid to leap.

Because sometimes, there is not time to look, or you have to leap without being able to truly see. Sometimes ya gotta take a chance. If you spend all your time making sure everything is safe, all safety nets are in place, every contingency is accounted for, by the time you get around to leaping, the audience has gone home, or they already leapt ahead of you, or you went broke and no amount of leaping will get you your money back.

From Serenity:

Sure as I know anything I know this, they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten, they’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better.

And I do not hold to that.

So no more running. I aim to misbehave.

And that is what makes the people, not the government, of America so great, we aim to misbehave. And we often come out ahead because of it.

To paraphrase the feminists:

Well behaved people rarely make history.

In August of that same year, back home the FCC was allowing capitalism and the First Amendment to finally work together by getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine.

In October, Jesse Jackson announced his plans to run for president, again. Days later, the country was riveted by the story of “Baby Jessica” and mobilized to establish a trust fund for her that was rumored to be worth over a million dollars.

Feb 88 brought further strengthening of the the First Amendment when the Supremes found for Flynt in Hustler Magazine, Inc. v Falwell. Any time the Supremes get something right about constitutional law you gotta be proud.

Evan Mecham was booted out of office, proving that the system could indeed work.

In August, the Cubbies finally played a night game at Wrigley.

In September, Space Shuttle flights resumed.

In November, the B-2 is rolled out to the public for the first time.

In 1989, history and pride combined in the Gulf of Sidra incident on January fourth. I was there, and my pilots did good.

In Feb, Ron Brown, a black man, became the head of the DNC and Barbara Harris became the first female bishop in the Episcopal Church.

In May, the world watched Chinese students stand up for American-style rights, even unveiling a strangely familiar statue. In June, the world watched as these liberty and freedom loving students showed that they knew what price needed to be paid to achieve what they craved.

In November, the Wall did indeed come down.

By the end of the year, the Iron Curtain was shredded.

1990 started with the arrest of Noriega in Panama, Marion Barry arrested in D.C., and Hazelwood on trial.

The Soviet Union collapsed, German Reunification was underway, and the Sandinistas were voted out in Feb.

With freedom breaking out all over the planet, I found myself again in the Mid-East by the end of this year, to help Kuwait kick a bully out of their sandbox.

From ’91 to ’94, I was at the Fleet HQ for the Atlantic Fleet, doing a job that only one other person in the Navy was doing, plus going through physical therapy for injuries sustained in the sandbox. Highlights include Desert Storm to free Kuwait, Albania and Georgia had free elections, the DOW closed over 3,000, this tech thingy called the internet was being built, Clarence Thomas got appointed to the Supremes, and David Duke is put to political rest; Ross Perot, a third party guy, got his name on the ballot for all fifty states, the mall of America was built, and U.S. troops were asked by the UN to help out in Somalia; the second START was signed, Janet Reno became Atty Gen for the US, two Iraqis tried to kill Bush 41, and China held a nuke test; the Kremlin Accords were signed, South Africa held its first fully multi-racial elections, Aristide wes restored to power due to US assistance, and Newt led the Republican Party to dominance in both the House and Senate.

1995 had Steve Fossett setting records, Belfast free of British troops, Scott O’Grady showing that even zoomies can be tough, and Bernard A. Harris. Jr., a black man, walking in space. Ebay was founded. The Million Man March was strangely not the scene of race riots or face warfare.

1996 had the summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA. Hazel and I took the day off so we could watch the Torch make its way through town.

1997 had a few firsts, like Madeleine Albright becoming the first female Sec of State, Tara Lipinski became the youngest ever womens figure skating world champion, and IBM’s Deep Blue beating Kasparov. Pathfinder landed on Mars, Old Ironsides celebrated 200 years, and the F-22 underwent flight testing.

1998 put John Glenn back into space, the Lunar Prospector into orbit around the moon, and data from space about liquid oceans on Europa and ice on the Moon. The iMac was unveiled. Google was founded.

1999 saw the best in us all. Many were worried about the Y2K bug, Lewinsky, and Columbine. But Americans rose to the challenges, put our lives back together as best we could, and carried on. Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France, the Liberty Bell 7 was raised from the ocean floor, and the United States kept it’s promise to turn over the Panama Canal Zone, proving that we were an honorable nation.

And surely in the past seven years, there are things in which you too are proud, yes? Things or people or accomplishments of your friends and neighbors?

One thing I will remember to to the day I die happened in 1987, but you won’t find it in wikipedia:

I was a young enlisted sailor in Virginia, when my duty day rolled around. The chief handed me a shovel and told me to grab another kid and follow him outside. We followed. He marched us around to the back of our barracks and opened the access door on the thirty foot dumpster. Beside that dumpster he placed a tape deck on the ground. When he pressed play it was a repeating loop of Lee Greenwood singing “Proud to be an American.” (Edited to correct title: “God Bless the U.S.A.” is what it should be. Thanks Jeff from the comments.) Me and my buddy cleaned out a dumpster for our country, singing at the top of our lungs, and laughing our asses off. The chief gave us the rest of the day off and we never stood a watch again.

I’m not sure, but maybe there is a lesson there.

I think pride in the country doesn’t come from what the government or the military or even our heroes do; I think it comes from realizing that every day, in every thing we do, we are making our country into something new. If you don’t believe in where we came from, how can you expect to get to someplace worthwhile?

Patriotism should be avoided in school lessons because British history is “morally ambiguous”, a leading educational body recommends.

History and citizenship lessons should stick to the bare facts rather than encouraging loyalty to Britain when covering subjects such as the Second World War or the British Empire, the Institute of Education researchers said. Teachers should not instill pride in what they consider great moments of British history, as more shameful episodes could be downplayed or excluded.

The British Empire can be described in many ways… Epic. World-changing. “Best forgotten” was not exactly on the tip of my tongue though.

As disdainful historians are pointing out to this committee of imbeciles, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The imbeciles again:

…Dr Hand, the co-author of the report, said: “Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both called for a history curriculum that fosters attachment and loyalty to Britain, but the case for promoting patriotism in schools is weak.

“Are countries really appropriate objects of love? Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt. Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, it’s an open question whether citizens should love their countries.”

I ask you, Gentle Readers, when did patriotism become deserving of shame? It’s not just in Britain, I’ve noticed it a great deal in this country, as well. What is the problem with being proud of your country of birth? It does not mean you should blind yourself to the questionable actions of past policymakers. All it means is that you’re still capable of dreaming, of holding your nation, your neighbors, and yourself, to a higher ideal. When these children are denied the concept of patriotism, what will they have to inspire them to better anything outside their own self-centered view of the world?