K. Hargan
USA

OWNERSHIP AND PATRIOTISM
Teaching Citizenship in the United States of America

    Americans are generally known as being good citizens. We organize ourselves and volunteer to clean up public parks and beaches, to work in soup kitchens to feed the poor, to build good, inexpensive housing, and we donate money and goods to help not only poor Americans, but also suffering people around the world. Americans are also generally known for being patriotic - sometimes arrogantly, obnoxiously, insufferably patriotic, especially when they are travelling outside of the USA. Both these traits were noted by Alexis de Tocqueville in the early 19th century, and at least the obnoxious patriotism was noted by Charles Dickens later in that same century, when they visited the United States. I believe both these traits are connected to a fundamental, underlying principle, and I would like here to examine that principle and its ramifications for teaching people to be good citizens.
    The principle in question is ownership. The ownership to be discussed here is a much broader concept than simply having a title or a receipt that shows that one is the legal owner of a piece of land or a car or an item of merchandise. This type of ownership is more related to the "familial ownership" observed when a proud father or mother says, "That's my son" or "That's my daughter" when the child has done something extraordinary. The simple word "my" implies a very strong sense of the relationship. We see an extreme example of patriotism in the well-known phrase "My country, right or wrong". Again, the word "my" implies a strong feeling - and I would argure in this case, a feeling of ownership.
    Since this was already so strong when de Toqueville visited, we must look back to England for its roots. I believe that the Anglo-American tradition provides a strong basis for a sense of "public ownership". It began with the common in English villages. Each villager had his own plot of ground for gardening around his house, but the whole village maintained a common grazing area for cattle, sheep, geese, and so on. Responsibility for this common grazing area, or, simply, the common, fell upon all members of the village. Since all owned the common, all were responsible for maintaining it, and no one person had the right to reserve its use for himself alone.
    Nor did any one person have the right to use the common for grazing and not contribute his part to maintaining it. So, this public ownership carried both rights and responsibilities, even more so than private ownership, since no one was required by the rest of the village to maintain his own property in order to preserve his right to keep ownership.
    Public ownership was further developed in the debates that lead to the formulation of the U.S. Constitution, which begins, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union..". and includes as the 10th Amendment (the last of the original Bill of Rights) "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people". In other words, the American people own their rights and only delegate certain powers to the government of the United States of America because it is more efficient to exercise those powers collectively rather than individually.
    The rights of Americans are not granted by either the government or the Constitution; they are "unalienable", as described in the Declaration of Independence, meaning that they are possessions we are born with. This is in contrast to the constitutions of many nations, in which the rights of the people are granted by the constitutions, subject "as necessary" to restrictions by the government. From the beginning, then, Americans have explicitly owned their rights, their government and their country.
    This sense of public ownership continues today. We hear it when an American, insisting on his rights in whatever situation, says "I've got my rights. I'm a taxpayer!" By reminding his hearers of his status as a taxpayer, the American claims the right to a hearing or other participation in the public process. In a sense, the American taxpayer considers himself or herself a shareholder in the United States of America. This sense of being a shareholder gives the American the feeling of being entitled to make use of public spaces, and also of having the responsibility to keep the public spaces clean. As a people at home in their own country, I believe the Americans are most likely of all people to carry their trash with them until they can find a garbage can to put it in. Other traditions insist on people keeping their homes and privately owned property in good shape, but make no such requirements for public spaces. In such societies, littering is very common, since the place where the trash is dropped is not "mine", and therefore the person has no responsibility for keeping it clean. This is not only the case in Russia, but also in such countries as Japan and Italy where there is no sense of public ownership.
    Along with the feeling of public ownership comes a sense of closeness, a sense of affection for the thing owned. Since "ownership" of a country is a fairly abstract "thing", that sense of affection is often transferred to symbols of that country. And as with anyone or anything (for a example, a pet) for whom we feel affection, we begin to use nicknames to express our feeling. How many nicknames do Russians have for their flag? The U.S. has the Star Spangled Banner, the Stars and Stripes, the Red, White and Blue, and Old Glory (at least). These nicknames are used regularly, and not just in political speeches. They also turn up in popular songs and poems, which to my mind build up a greater sense of affection than official statements.
    George M. Cohan wrote, "Every heart beats true for the Red, White and Blue" in his song "It's a Grand Old Flag".
    "This Is My Country" was written by Don Reye and Al Jacobs in 1940:

What difference if I come from North or South,

Or from the East or West?

My heart is filled with love for all of these.

I only know I swell with pride,

And deep within my breast,

I thrill to see Old Glory paint the breeze.

This is my country,

Land of my birth.

This is my country,

Grandest on earth.

I pledge thee my allegiance,

America, the bold,

For this is my country,

To have and to hold...

    In this song we see both a nickname for the flag and the idea of America being "my country, to have and to hold". Such songs are not on the level of "national anthems" such as "The Star Spangled Banner", "America, the Beautiful", or "My Country, is of Thee", but they may be more important as popular expressions of ownership and affection which operate on the level of sentiment and emotion. A more modern expression was written by Arlo Guthrie:

This land is your land,

This land is my land,

From California

To the New York island...

...This land was made for you and me.

    And of course there is Irving Berlin's "God Bless America":

God bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her,

And guide her

Through the night

With a light

From above.

    For an American raised on such songs, listening to them or singing them often brings a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat (often making it impossible to continue singing). Our sixth grade choir (made up of all the sixth graders in the school) in Papillion, Nebraska, learned to sing "This Is My Country" by heart for a music program. By teaching children such songs and poems, they begin to develop the understanding that they, as Americans, are part owners of their country.
    There are a number of interesting consequences to this feeling of ownership and affection besides a predilection to not litter on the "common". As a taxpayer and part owner of the country, an American feel very strongly his right to approach elected officials to make complaints and suggestions, as he would to a store manager or business owner. Americans are strong partisans of their country, feeling personal elation at Olympic gold medals, for example, and feeling personally insulted when non-Americans burn the American flag.
    But more important than such attitudes is the feeling that Americans "own" America's problems. In parallel with the idea that if my car or house has a problem, therefore it is my responsibility (and likely no one else's) to make that repair, as an American I have a feeling that pollution, poverty, illiteracy, etc., in America are also "my" problems, because they are problems in my country. Therefore I will join a non-governmental organization or volunteer for my church programs to carry out my responsibilities for maintaining the American "common". I will spend a Saturday building a playground in a park or picking up trash from a beach. I will contribute money to my church's program for feeding and training the poor. I will also contribute money to organizations which I have joined as a member because they are trying to deal with issues that I consider important, and about which I feel the government has not done enough. I will volunteer in dozens of large and small ways in my community, my state, my country and even my world because it is my responsibility to maintain the "common" at each level to the best of my ability.
    As I think of my school days, I can recall a number of ways in which these ideas were taught to me. It is therefore possible to teach such concepts so that the rising generation internalizes and is motivated by them. However, it would seem that the most effective level at which such education can be aimed is at the emotional, sentimental level, rather than only the intellectual level. To be a patriot, one must care for one's country; understanding at a rational level why it is good for the country for me to be a good citizen is not a strong enough "reason" to motivate me to do good for my country. Certainly one must know the ways to be a good citizen in order to put them into practice, but if the person does not care what happens to the country, then there is no motivation to actually be a good citizen.
    I would suggest that if, to outsiders, Americans appear to have an exaggerated sense of patriotism and to show exaggerated sentimentality over symbols of America, it is because we have been trained up to think of these things as "ours". And that which is "mine" I hold near and dear to my heart. I will cherish and try to take care of it. I will voluntarily spend my own money, time and efforts to make it better. And I will join with others, regardless of race, religion or politics, to make things better, because I know that, as part owners, we all share the goals of a better country, the best that we can make it. I cannot prove it, but I believe that any country that can teach its children that they are all part owners of their own country will see the rise of a generation that cares enough to try to make it a better country for all of its citizens. Love of one's country is possible, but one must be taught from a young age that there is something there to love. Without that feeling, what reason is strong enough to motivate the sacrifices that will make it better?

© Hargan K., 2000