The Hippie Professor

I started this blog only about two weeks ago, and I have already been called quite a few names.

I think my favorite is moonbat.

I confess – I didn’t entirely know what a moonbat was – so I looked it up and discovered that I apparently don’t watch enough FOX or listen to enough right-wing talk radio.  Go figure.

I have decided, however, that I will indeed embrace my inner moonbat.

I might even change my name to “The Moonbat Professor” – what do you think?

Anyway, on to today’s topic.

A few weeks ago I received the following email, apparently from one of my blog “fans”…

It was addressed to “Rock’n’Roll Moonbat”

“I understand that you do not like Southern patriots. Here is some light reading for your consideration.”

(Momentary tangent: The light reading consisted of an attached PDF file containing HR 3200 – the House health care bill.  Apparently I was supposed to be in awe of the enormous size of the bill.  As a hint, don’t try to impress professors with lots of pages – we make a career of forcing students to read longer and harder stuff.  In fact, the bill has huge margins and wide spacing, suitable for markup.  A reasonably intelligent person could easily get through it in an evening.  This isn’t exactly Moby Dick or Ulysses.)

But back to the point – Moonbat Patriotism.

My correspondent makes a lot of assumptions about me – to begin with that I apparently do not like southern patriots.  I admit that I do not particularly like the New England Patriots – but I don’t think they really count as southern.  No – I think he means those REAL Americans – those genteel southerners who truly love their country, unlike the rest of us.

Obviously, he knows virtually nothing about me.

Let me tell you something about my family.

Half of my family comes from the south – much of it the deep south.  New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport LA, Leesburg VA, Hannibal MO – branches of my family can be found in all those places – and I haven’t even started counting cousins.

OK – so they are southern – but are they patriots?

Lets see….

My grandfather and my great uncle were both Annapolis grads, and both retired from the Navy as Admirals.  My mother grew up as a “Navy Brat” spending small amounts of her life at naval bases across the country.  In the early 1940s this took her to Honolulu. At the time, my grandfather was sailing out of Pearl Harbor on the Lexington.

The night before the bombing of Pearl Harbor my mother was on a date with a sailor from the Arizona.  The date lasted longer than it should have, and he missed the last launch back to his ship.  That date saved his life.  It would be a better story had he not died less than a year later at Guadalcanal.

My mother was only a few miles away when the bombing started the next morning.   She saw the planes fly overhead, saw the bombs fall, and heard the explosions.  In the following weeks she served as a volunteer treating the wounded at a field hospital.

The Lexington was at sea during the bombing, several days out of Pearl, so my grandfather missed the first engagement in the Pacific war.  It was less than 6 months later that the Lexington went down during the Battle of the Coral Sea – a battle seen by many historians as the strategic turning point of the war.  My grandfather survived the battle after swimming for hours in shark-infested waters.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed my father was working in a bank.  He immediately quite his job and joined the Navy and became a reserve officer.   He served as communications officer on two small carriers during the war, which eventually took him to Honolulu.  It was there he met my mother, and the rest is history.

I am trying to remember – why was I telling this story?

Oh – yes – because someone thought that I somehow don’t like southern patriots….

To say that I don’t like southern patriots is to say that I don’t like half of my family.  I not only like them, I love them and respect them.  I am not bragging – but I think my familial southern patriot bona fides are about as good as they come.

Which brings us to the key question:  How did my correspondent, knowing virtually nothing about me, come to the conclusion that I don’t like southern patriots?

The answer seems pretty obvious:  Because I am liberal.

Apparently in his mind there is only one way to be a true patriot – a REAL American.  Only one set of beliefs is allowed.

To this, I politely say Bullshit.

America is not about adherence to a single, narrow world view.  Our constitution provides for – indeed celebrates – a diversity of opinion.  That is what free speech is all about and that is what America stands for.

Understanding that, cherishing that, and fighting for that is what it means to be a real patriot.

In my email response, I related my family history to my correspondent, much as I have above.

He replied:

“Would your ancestors be proud of you, with your political views?”

Damned right they would be.  I am expressing my freedom as an American – and that is what they fought for.