What exactly is a patriot?

 

“Patriotism: Your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.”

George Bernard Shaw

The dictionary definition of patriotism is “the feeling of loving your country more than others and being proud of it” according to the Cambridge English dictionary.

So why is it that Patriotism looks so much different to this description in real life? In real life it looks very much like a lot of people screaming that my country is better than your country, while doing nothing to improve the international standing of that country, I'm sure that Garry from Gateshead with his union flag T-shirt and bunting all over his house feels patriotic, but looking at it from a different perspective, Gaz, you look like a twonk, I grew up around some people who's version of patriotism, is keeping the country to ourselves, or, in some cases, keeping the foreigners out.

Patriotism, is a thin wire, some walk it fine, others fall into the pit of nationalism and xenophobia.

I consider myself a patriot, I love the country I was born in, from the highlands of Scotland, through the valleys of Wales, to the beaches of Cornwall, and of course the geographical wonders of northern Ireland, my country is beautiful, many jokes are made across the pond about our unpredictable climate, but would this be such a green and pleasant land if we didn't have so much rain?

I love the people too, for the most part, Britain has produced some of the greatest artists, scientists, and thinkers the world has ever seen, when the call came to fight fascism in Europe in world war two, we answered, and not just politicians, the whole country joined together in the war effort, fathers, sons, brothers and nephews, put down the tools of their regular jobs, and went to fight where ever they were needed to fight, and the wives, daughters, sisters and nieces, picked up those tools, and built, they built everything we needed to defeat fascist oppressors, and those who couldn't fight in far flung lands, stayed at home and defended the country, everyone had a role, and everyone happily got on with it, every man woman and child had a stake in the success of the fight against Hitler and the axis of evil, and I am proud to be their countryman, every time I go past the jaguar factory, I'm reminded that once upon a time we were a country that pulled together, for a cause, while bombers rained death from above, families were torn apart by death and destruction every day, families waited for the dreaded telegram that started “we regret to inform you” but they continued to put the war effort first, even managing to put aside their grief, because there were other families that would never get that notification if we just pull together in our efforts.

Sure, there are things in British history that I'm not proud of, the colonisation of most of the world, the stealing of resources and leaving the people of those countries starving to death, our involvement in the theft of native American lands, and some wars that we did not need to get into, leave me cold, Australia's “Stolen generation” where children were taken from their families and placed with white families in an attempt to eradicate the indigenous peoples culture, a practice that started in 1910, and continued right up to 1970, the Canadian residential schools, where more than 4000 children that we know about died, they were all part of our colonial past, even today the scars of this time are clearly visible in the world we live in, with so much of the generational wealth, the real old money, being able to be traced back to slavery and colonisation.

Obviously, I can get quite conflicted at times, but the way I look at it is we have the choice, we can accept that once upon a time, we were the bad guys, and do better moving forward, and not forget that we did horrible things to people, and not remeniss about a version of the empire that never really existed, and make the mistake of letting history repeat itself.

Or we can accept those dark times, and never shy away from them, never forget what we once were, and never let another threat to the lives and liberty of the people of the world be threatened again, just because the truth about our own history is to uncomfortable to look at.

Right now in Britain and America especially, we have been sold a very strange brand of patriotism, it's become a byword for bigoted and racist mindsets, and that is because bigots and racists have stolen patriotism and repackaged it and turned it into another word for nationalists, its like you ordered patriotism from wish.

What people call patriotism now is nothing more than a device of ethnic purity, and there is sinister dealings going on behind it, in Britain today, we have a conservative government, who after much flag waving, have convinced the country that our problems are caused by Immigrants and transgender people, and I remember when it was jobless layabouts that were the problem, but of course, they soon came to realise that they needed those jobless layabouts to vote for them, so they told said jobless layabouts that the reason they couldn't get a job or a council house, is because someone coming into the country for the benefits, had taken their job, and got a brand new house, and none of them can speak English.

And they believed them, even though they wouldn't be getting benefits if they have stolen your job, and the likelihood of new social housing being built after Thatcher sold them all were very slim, and if someone who cant speak English can take your job, you need to take a long hard look at your life.

Of course people are worried about mass immigration, the media talks about nothing else, every day we are bombarded with images of small boats turning up on British soil, filled with people from different countries, here to claim asylum, but all the media show you is what it needs to to instil fear in people, its the number one rule in the media handbook, scare till they care, the actual facts don't matter to them, journalism in early 21^st century Britain is not about informing the public, its become about maintaining the circulation of the publications they work for, because god forbid that the owner of the news papers don't get that new yacht.

America has its own brand of patriotism, go onto YouTube and watch a few “Karen” videos, you are guaranteed two things, a gratuitous display of entitlement, and some one will say “I'm an American/This is America”.they appear to have to remind people of their citizenship status, it troubles me that immigrants are treated this way all the time by, lets face it immigrants, because unless you are an indidgiounus American, go back a couple of generations and you will find your family in Ireland, Germany, France, Italy or Britain, but the one thing British Patriotism and American Patriotism have in common, is the notion that only white people belong in that country, now im not saying that everyone in America is a racist, I'm not even saying that America is a systemically racist country, and the same goes for the UK, but there are events that make me wonder.

When America entered the second world war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, franklin D Roosevelt signed in Executive order 9066, a policy of the US government that people of Japanese decent, including US citizens, would be incarcerated in isolated camps, virtual all Japanese Americans were sent to these internment camps for the duration of the war, with no more justification than some misinformation, half truths and out right lies about sabotage on the American mainland.

But remember, the allied forces were not only at war with Japan, we were at war with Germany and Italy too, and the way people of German and Italian ancestry were treated were vastly different, with German and Italian Americans only being locked up when justification to do so was found, so in the best case scenario, it was bad optics that only Japanese Americans were locked up without justification, at worst, it was blatant racism, the truth is the reality of the situation fell somewhere in between.

And her in the UK, the case of Shamima Begum shows another double standard, the then 15 year old travelled to Syria in 2015 reportedly to join ISIL. Now I believe that she should be sent to prison, a crime was committed, and despite the mounting evidence that she was groomed, there would be no option but to hand down a prison sentence, even though I have been searching all morning to find what actual crime she has been charged with, I'm unable to find a real charge sheet.

My problem is, that despite the young age of Begum, and the mounting evidence that she was groomed into joining ISIL, and that you could argue that she was a victim in all this, she has been stripped of her British citizenship, even though she was born in the UK.

You see I contrast that with the case of Samantha Lewthwaite, AKA “The white widow”, also a British born woman who left the UK to join a terror group, and is thought to be involved on the deaths of around 400 people, she is still a British citizen.

How is it that one British subject can stripped of their citizenship, and another not? How does that even work?

Like I said, its not a matter of accepting Shamima Begum back with open arms, And I don't want to speak on the the grooming aspect of this case, because my point is about British citizenship being something you have automatically when you are born in this country, its not a carrot and stick that can be used to keep people who's parents were born in different countries, in line, or a stick to beat us with, its a right, it's a birth right.

Weather Begum was groomed or not I don't know, that part I didn't look into, there are far better writers than I that could tell you exactly what happened there, I suggest you go seek them out, as will I but this case coupled with the Windrush Scandal that saw people who were born in the Caribbean and were invited to come to Britain under commonwealth law, being deported, despite in some cases being valuable members of society, including many who had long careers in the NHS, Does make you feel like as a British born person of colour, your right to live in your country of birth, the country I love so dearly, could be taken away so arbitrarily

So how do we repair the image of patriotism, how do we ensure that patriotism isn't turned into just another meaning for nationalism and xenophobia? Well first we have to acknowledge the past, because only by acknowledging the past, can we stop ourselves repeating those mistakes in the future, I don't want My kids growing up in a world that doesn't value them for the brilliant young people that they are, just because their grandparent was born outside of the UK, I want them to be as proud of our achievements as I am, and in order for that to happen, we need to stop confusing nationality with race, because I hate to break it to you, but black people can be British, Asian people can be British, British is not a race, its an identity, I have friends who all describe themselves as British, and so many of those friends have parents and grand parents from around the globe, and its the thing that makes me so proud to be British, the diversity of ancestry of this beautiful Island that we live on, makes life so much better, so much more interesting, we just need to work together so that we can put the great back into Great Britain.

Because if I have learned anything in my life, it's very hard to motivate yourself to integrate with British society, when your constantly told to fuck off back to where you came from.

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