Patriotic display

Jim Donovan is proud of the American flag, so much so that he plans to have unfurled for the July 4 weekend the largest one ever seen in downtown Waynesboro.

Donovan, of Waynesboro, helped start the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial Flag Detail Inc., an organization dedicated to making sure that the memorial never goes without a fresh, crisp and clean flag, as it is one of the few sites that, by presidential proclamation, flies the flag 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

And in an effort to acknowledge the Independence Day holiday in Waynesboro, Donovan, a retired Marine and member of the Ceremonial Guard Company at Marine Barracks 8th & Eye, is bringing a 20-foot-by-38-foot garrison flag to be unfurled in front of the Thomas L. Gorsuch Municipal Building at 250 S. Wayne Ave. today at 9 a.m. It will stay in front of the building until 3 p.m. Sunday, when it will be taken down and summer cadets from Fishburne Military School will attempt to fold it.

The garrison flag comes from the Marine Corps’ Headquarters Battalion, Henderson Hall in Arlington. Those Marines are the ones who rotate the flag at the Marine Corps War Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery.

Though not a formal ceremony, Donovan said he wanted to have the flag unfurled downtown as a way of “trying to get the Fourth of July ceremony jump-started in Waynesboro.”

Patriotism, he said, is becoming more apparent today, with the American public welcoming troops home from war and flying more flags.

“I see a lot more,” Donovan said. “Patriotism today is a lot more visible,” though he said he would like to see more young people in the military.

“My hope would be that the young people of the city, the country, would become patriotic and join the services, put in the time for their country,” Donovan said.

Eric Liu, who co-authored with Nick Hanauer of the 2007 book “The True Patriot” and worked for former President Bill Clinton as a speechwriter from 1993-94 and domestic policy advisor from 1999 to 2000, said young people are finding other ways to serve their country.

Praising the expansion of the AmeriCorps program, he said young people are willing to step up and serve more in community and national service. He believes that patriotism isn’t just about flag-waving, but about “grounding yourself in a set of moral principles.”

Liu said he and Hanauer put out “The True Patriot” in response to the way patriotism after 9/11, they felt, was either misused or abused. He said people should look anew at old values such as stewardship, sharing of sacrifice, mutual obligation and a fair shot for all.

Because of President Barack Obama’s election and due to the economic crisis, Liu said all Americans, regardless of background or affiliations, are asking themselves what it means to leave a good, lasting legacy for their children, to live within their means and to be a responsible citizen and serve their communities.

Matthew Spalding, director of the Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., said there are distinctions as to what being patriotic means.

“After 9/11, you got a strong surge, almost a nationalistic sense of patriotism,” Spalding said. “We need to defend ourselves, and our very ideas were under attack.”

He said that form of patriotism surges when the country is threatened, and if the U.S. were to be attacked again, that surge would resume.

The patriotism he sees today, though, is different.

“I think there’s kind of a growing surge of Americans who are concerned with where some of our policies are going,” Spalding said.

Spalding says the American public isn’t so much reacting to an international threat as it is to an internal, moral concern.

“The tea parties, that is a renewed sign of patriotism, but it is a slightly different kind of patriotism,” Spalding said.

However, Liu said that the tea parties only had the “surface symbolism of patriotism.”

“The values underneath them, which were essentially values of, ‘It’s my money,’ were not true values of patriotism,” he said.

Liu said the tea parties represent a “heightened sense” that people should be involved in politics and praises their “sincere convictions,” but said even with the progressive point of view espoused in his book, the idea of being a true patriot isn’t about politics.

“Part of our point of view is that, particularly in a country that is facing the kind of challenges that we are right now, we have to think about being in it together, and we have to think about teamwork,” Liu said. “And one piece of teamwork and one piece of not just thinking about yourself is, thinking about, in a very narrow way, is a willingness to say there are times where we have to pay more. There are times when we have to pay taxes, and in our view, right now is one of those times.”

Though he supported Obama for president, Liu said Republican candidate John McCain’s campaign slogan of “country first” was apt.

“You take ‘country first’ seriously and mean it, then that applies across the board if you’re [willing] to serve or support those who serve in the military, and who sacrifice through their service,” Liu said. “It also means being willing to step up and recognize that there are times where we have to all pull together and all chip in to make sure that our community doesn’t collapse, that those who are hurting the most don’t get completely obliterated by these circumstances. ‘Country first’ doesn’t mean ‘me first,’ period.”

Every religious tradition taken seriously, Liu said, “is about how can you be a part of something greater than yourself.”

Spalding, though, believes the newer form of patriotism is coming from those who are speaking out against higher taxes and are concerned about the overall direction of the U.S.

“It’s a love of your country, but it’s a love of what your country means,” Spalding said.

Fourth of July celebrations

* 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m.: Gypsy Hill Park, Staunton – a 5K race, music, children’s activities, fireworks and more.

* 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m.: Lexington — 13th Annual BB&T Fourth of July Balloon Rally at Virginia Military Institute. Includes piloted balloon rides, tethered balloon rides, balloon glow, live music, food and craft vendors, children’s activities and fireworks. Balloon rides are all sold out.