"Patriot Day"

Today, of course, was the 6-year anniversary of 9/11. But was I the only one mildly disturbed by its new label, "Patriot Day"? Apparently congress and the administration created this label not too long ago and ensured it got printed into every subsequent calendar.

Perhaps it's the suffocating negative energy surrounding the word "patriot" that gives me such an immediate adverse reaction to it. In the eyes of many, you're either a patriot or a terrorist, and to be considered a patriot involves an almost Orwellian conformity to the cancerous requirements and propoganda infecting the marrow of this country. People who dare go against the word of authority in this endless time of war are considered dangerous radicals who are only several treasonous words away from Al-Qaeda's sign-up sheet.

Am I exaggerating? Maybe. Is this my own propoganda? In a way, yes. But when someone like Ron Paul, a Republican running for 2008, is condemned for boldly standing up and declaring during the recent debate in South Carolina that we ought to take some responsibility for igniting the mentality that led up to 9/11, I see the ominous hues of a pre-dystopian mindset coloring the political dynamic of the nation's media, its political candidates and its public.

The idea that America was wholly victimized on this day 6 years ago is, I believe, shallow and naive thinking. It is this thinking that spawns such beliefs in an absolutist evil, which every terrorist is, right? Riiight. I believe no one does anything inappropriate, given their own model of the world.

The victims of society's ills (and this includes everyone, and every kind of ill) are victims of a Frankenstein's monster they've unwittingly lent their hand to create. For if everyone suddenly took up a small piece of responsibility for creating the terrorists, murderers, rapists, and thieves of our world then I can almost gaurantee you will see a massive shift in consciousness, and an ensuing plunge in crime statistics. The issue is, no one wants to believe they are a piece of the whole pie that creates the problem.

The word "patriot" is also weighed down with a sense of separation. It is this illusion of separation -- and many like it -- to which so much suffering can be attributed. "Patriot" means we are here and they are there. It means we are us, and they are them. We are ALL HERE together. Countries exist merely as abstract divisions in a land mass that knows no actual separation except in that which we give it.

In the words of Kurt Vonnegut, every form of life is an "unwavering band of light." There is no light greater or less than the next, across races, genders, nations, or even species.

There have been times when we've realized this. Christmas Eve in 1914, during World War I, is certainly a good example, where the British and German troops laid down their arms to share gifts, play soccer and sing a chorus of Silent Night together. Another was the moon landing; when Armstrong and company would visit other countries after having visited the moon, the reaction was not so much a celebration of an American achievement but rather of the new milestone reached by Humankind.

I love the United States. I love the ideals upon which it was founded, that essentially the survival of one means the survival of all, and vice versa. It celebrated brother (and sister) hood, true liberty and true freedom of expression, not just when it was "politically correct" or when said expression was in The Man's favor. George Washington, upon leaving office, adumbrated: "Beware of those who will use patriotism to suit their own personal agenda."

I do not see patriotism coming from the halls of Washington. Rather, I see a rogue beast of capitalistic corruption and greed that sees a ball and is attempting to run with it without proper team consent. Capitalism is, like communism, good in theory, but when mangled by the rabid atavistic need for symbol, status and survival, it becomes clotted with horded wealth that remains in the hands of the upper 1%, never to be implemented back into the system for the people but rather, especially as of late, invested in a machine of progressively imperialistic implications. I'll bet not many even know of the Bush administration's percolating plans for a North American Union, which aims to erase our northern and southern borders in the interest of reaping Mexican labor and Canadian oil. So...what's to become of the USA and its Constitution? Who's the real one being "unpatriotic" here?

I say, be patriotic towards ideals, towards freedom, love, truth, all three of which are interchangable. When the country you're living in begins to deviate from such ideals, use them to raise your voice, to make a change. We are all pieces of the system, all pieces of the responsibility -- so let's employ it.

Do we have true freedom?

We are free in body, but are we free in mind?

No, this isn't some sort of Matrix musing, more an observation about a psychological prison I see many Americans (and people in general, I'm sure) committing themselves to, usually with the help of parental or teacher figures who hammer out their perception of success to which they expect you to conform.

Most people believe the route to success is to go to a good college, study, work your way up, find a spouse, have children, settle comfortably into a suburban home, and retire.

Why is that success?

Honestly, please tell me why that is success. To me, it isn't, because there's a key ingredient that's missing - happiness. If you're happy with who you are and what you're doing, that's success. Or, if you'd like another definition from Winston Churchill, "Success is failing over and over and not losing your enthusiasm."

I question the amount of true freedom we have simply because, with the College + $ + Marriage = Success equation being the most ubiquitous, so many people are conditioned from day one to believe it is the only method through which we can measure our self-worth, and validate ourselves in the eyes of society. We are free to move about wherever we want and to say whatever we want, but what we think is an amalgam of pressing external forces that bombard us the day we take on a physical form. Thus, many people, I am sad to say, are not free in the slightest, not psychologically.

So free your mind. Do what you want and be happy. Fuck society (daily meditation really helps get you to this point -- at least it's working for me). And don't let anyone set your worries aflame about "biological clocks" or anything with the terms "need to", "should" or "shouldn't" attached to them. We all come from and end up in the same place, so the differences between a lawyer and a hippie are pretty inconsequential.