The six step method to raise your kids to be patriotic

[liberal N proud]

MSN had a link titled: One man's plan for raising patriotic kids

The heading for the story when following the link:

Yankee Doodle Daddy

One man's plan for raising patriotic kids.

Talking to kids about patriotism is tricky, especially if you're a white man who has had every opportunity our republic affords. If you've had some grace shed on thee, it's easy to sound like a guy who's mistaken his own good fortune for a society as generous as the one we'd planned.

But I've figured out how to make the kids love their country. The O'Neill Plan for Raising Patriots proceeds from the following mission statement: to find a deep patriotism, a belief in our country that both accepts our blunders and still savors the durable importance of the enterprise. The O'Neill Plan seeks a compromise between the red meat of "My country right or wrong" and the tofu of "We're just another nation-state run by plutocrats." Neither makes sense. It's as foolish to support our country no matter what, as it is to believe there is nothing singular about us.

The O'Neill Plan proceeds from two rules. First, save the bad stuff -- the genocide which gave us birth, the slavery that helped us grow -- until middle school. There's plenty of time for looking into dark corners then. And second, sell the stage, not the show. If you try to explain particular events not only will the kids lose consciousness ("Hey, kids, the Viet Cong were either a proto-populist anti-colonialist liberation army or ? ...") but, more important, sometimes the plain facts don't always endorse our team.

Step one:
When the kids are very small, buy them one of those wooden USA jigsaw puzzles...
Step two:
When the kids are a little older, splurge for a topographical map as well...
Step three:
Offer your children money to memorize every state capital...
Step four:
Offer them money to memorize both the Preamble to the Constitution and the Gettysburg address...
Step five:
Don't worry that your patriotic propaganda is wasted on them...
Step six:
When the kids get to middle school, make sure they understand that Jefferson was both a great writer and a slaveowner, that ideals are one thing, but that real freedom is greatly rare...

You need to read the rest to get the complete story...

http://men.msn.com/articlebl.aspx?cp-documentid=4725712>1=10015&wa=wsignin1.0




Mods, I know this is a little longer but I tried to show the context of the story without stretching the rules too far.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. OK, irony over.

I'd read the kids biographies of true patriots like Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Upton Sinclair, Eugene V. Debs, Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Lucy Stone, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinham, Benjamin Franklin, etc. Let them see the sacrifices made for better lives in the future. Individuals who have impacted our lives one way or the other.

[Cobalt-60]

2. If I have to sell them patriotism

If it isn't immediately apparent the nation is worthy of their devotion,
we need to find a more respectable country.

[liberal N proud]

3. I suppose if that doesn't work you could always beat it into them

Either way, I am sure they will get the true meaning of patriotism.
The power of money or use of force.