It all started when I programmed my new Sirius to specific stations ranging from fifties rock ‘n’ roll to classical to talk. Now I am not a devotee of talk radio at all, but I am getting ready to become more informed about the presidential candidates. So I felt it was appropriate to preset one conservation talk radio station and one liberal one. I’m going to give them equal time.
The thing is, the conservation station was called the “Conservative Patriot,” while the liberal station was called the “Liberal Left.” This is unfair, but certainly not unusual. It goes along with much contemporary thinking that someone who is liberal cannot be a patriot. Oh please!
I believe there are patriots in both camps. I checked the meaning of the word in my Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary and learned a patriot is “a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.”
I love my country, and I support it in many ways. First, I vote. Conscientiously too. Next, I pay taxes even though I’m not always happy with how the government spends them. I abide by the laws. I stand when the National Anthem is played, and I scowl at those who talk during the final words before a sporting event gets under way.
Would I defend my country and its interests? Of course, but this is not the same as defending politicians’ interests. Or blindly thinking everything the United States does is right. As for the radio stations, if we wanted parallelism here, why couldn’t they be called the “Conservative Patriot” and the “Liberal Patriot”?
On another note, my Webster’s gives a second definition for patriot that is somewhat jarring in light of the first definition. It is “a U.S. Army antiaircraft missile with a range of 37 miles and a two hundred pound warhead, launched from a tracked vehicle with radar and computer guidance and fire control.”
On second thought, maybe I don’t want to be called a “Liberal Patriot.”
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