The Patriot Way

Today is Patriot Day, a day most of us refer to as 9/11. In the U.S., Patriot Day occurs annually

on September 11 in memory of the victims who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Though not a federal holiday, Patriot Day and the days surrounding it have been declared

national days of prayer, service, and remembrance by every U.S. President since 2002. Its

observance typically features moments of silence, reading the names of victims, publicly flying

the U.S. flag at half-staff or displaying it at our homes, sharing lessons learned from 9/11 on

social media, and other such events.

In the early 2000’s at about the time of the 9/11 attacks, a case called Elk Grove Unified School

District v. Newdow was being fought in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A California dad

sued his daughter’s school district, claiming that the public school practice of reciting the Pledge

of Allegiance and its mention of God violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The

Ninth Circuit agreed in its 2002 ruling but was ultimately overturned in 2004 by the U.S.

Supreme Court on procedural grounds, with no decision on the merits.

The case fostered much public debate at the time. I remember it well because I was at Maple

Dell scout camp with a bunch of teenage Troop 213 Boy Scouts when the uproar was prominent

in the news. Some of the young men were vaguely aware of the debate, but most were just being

boys and largely oblivious. The adult leaders, on the other hand, were immersed in the

controversy and the politics of it all.

Each morning at camp, both youth and adults met for an opening flag ceremony to start the day.

Even though the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization that for generations has taught

duty to God and country, some leader, or a group of leaders, decided that we weren’t going to

recite the Pledge of Allegiance that morning and summarily dismissed the crowd to breakfast.

That’s when I witnessed one of the greatest public displays of patriotism that I’ve ever had the

privilege of seeing. One of our troop leaders, Boulder City’s own Rodney Bean, had not only the

wherewithal to spontaneously sense what was happening but also the courage to take immediate

action. As the troops were quickly filing off of the parade ground, he shouted for everyone to

stop, do an about-face, and come to attention.

Then he told all of us in no uncertain terms that although breakfast might be beckoning and

although we had every right to take sides in the lawsuit and debate details about separation of

church and state, that day neither of those things would be occurring until each of us had first

pledged our allegiance to God and country just like we had each promised to do. And so we all

did exactly that and recited the Pledge of Allegiance in unison.

Prior to that day, I had gone through the motions of rotely reciting the Scout Oath dozens times

before: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country . . . .” And I had

also pledged my allegiance hundreds of times to the flag and the unity, government, and liberty

for which it stands. But until that singular act of patriotism, the words of the Pledge and the

Oath had never truly been etched on my soul.

Elementary school teachers Clare Tobler and Harold Coe are other local patriots whom I’m not

likely to ever forget. For years they spearheaded the Great American Award at Martha P. King

Elementary School. Fifth graders could earn the award by demonstrating that they had

memorized the Preamble to the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, all of the 40-plus U.S.

Presidents, the 50 state capitals, and the Pledge of Allegiance.

During the school year, they also learned what it means to be a great American, or in other

words, a patriot. And the curriculum culminated with the end-of-school Civil War reenactment,

which was put on by the fifth graders and attended by media outlets and crowds that filled

BCHS’s football stadium to the brim. Fifth grade in Boulder City truly was a patriotic year for

everyone.

My children were all Great Americans and fortunate beneficiaries of Mr. Tobler and Mr. Coe’s

contagious patriotism. Those proud Americans reminded all of us of what it means to be a true

patriot and helped my family to establish patriotic traditions of our own, including 4th of July

traditions and trips to our nation’s capital.

A patriot is a person who loves and vigorously supports his or her country, is prepared to

fearlessly defend it, and is even willing to valiantly stand up for individual rights and against the

tyrannies of government when absolutely necessary. There’s no single model for patriotism.

You can be a courageous patriot in many different ways.

The questions is, are you a true patriot? And what are you doing to demonstrate your patriotism

with conviction and courage? Today is a great day to consider those questions and then resolve

to follow through. Come to think of it, so is every day.

We all can take courage and be better patriots. Our community and the world are vastly better

places when we do so.