Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 23, 2003|Volume 31, Number 30|Two-Week Issue



BULLETIN HOME

VISITING ON CAMPUS

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

IN THE NEWS

BULLETIN BOARD

CLASSIFIED ADS


SEARCH ARCHIVES

DEADLINES

BULLETIN STAFF


PUBLIC AFFAIRS HOME

NEWS RELEASES

E-MAIL US


YALE HOME PAGE


Students consider definition
of 'patriotism' in series finale

A student discussion of the meaning of patriotism on May 4 was the final event in a teach-in series about the war in Iraq that has covered subjects ranging from the future of the United Nations to the importance of the nation's antiquities to media coverage of the war, and more.

The inspiration for the panel actually can be traced back to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to John Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History, who coordinated the teach-in series.

Gaddis told the audience that, during an informal discussion following the attacks, a student asked apologetically: "Would it be okay now to be patriotic?"

As they struggled to come to a consensus about the term "patriotism," the panelists -- six Yale undergraduates and one graduate student -- seemed to be trying to restore honor to an ideal that has become the target of much contention.

Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, a senior who aspires to a career in journalism, recalled meeting with Weekly Standard columnist and television pundit David Brooks, who had come to campus to do a story on the reawakening of patriotism in the "Post 9/11" generation.

On the one hand, Kurtz-Phelan confessed, he was pleased with Brooks' observation that a new spirit of patriotism reigned at Yale after the terrorist attack. On the other, he said, he was uncomfortable that Brooks extolled "clarity" and "simplicity" of vision as virtues that are fundamental components of patriotism.

That kind of simplistic reductionism is neither a virtue nor patriotic, contended Kurtz-Phelan. Rather, he argued, while cynical dismissal of love of one's country is a pointless endeavor, a critical questioning of complex issues is truly in the spirit of America. There is, Kurtz-Phelan maintained, a kind of idealism inherent in patriotism that might effect change and improvement in a country that its citizens can patriotically acknowledge to be flawed.

Kitty Harvey, who will enter Naval Officer Training School after graduation, confessed that, as a New Yorker, she had always identified more with the city where she grew up than with the country as a whole.

Her feelings of patriotism, she explained, weren't fully awakened until she served an internship last summer at a consulate in Saudi Arabia. It was the hard-working dedication of her co-workers there, she said, that finally made her proud to be an American.

Harvey said she was amazed at the transformation in herself as she realized that her emotional response to the war was quite different from many of her classmates. "For a young woman who has until fairly recently really considered herself much more a New Yorker that an American, it's really quite remarkable," she said.

When he first heard about 9/11, noted sophomore Sulmaan Khan, he "didn't see what the big deal was." As a Pakastani, he said, he was used to political violence, and the almost daily reports of terrorist bombings in Chechnya had inured him to such savage acts. He said he came to appreciate the enormity of the event at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon only when confronted with the human devastation.

Khan said he was perturbed that the reaction of so many of his classmates to the war in Iraq was to express their outrage by "shouting at each other." These uncivil and wholly intolerant expressions of anger, Khan said, signaled a breakdown in communication on the campus. The debate, he asserted, came to be about the rights of each side to be heard, not the war itself. In this environment, he said, "the mission of the University -- learning -- became an impossibility." Khan suggested that civil discourse was the key to exercising one's patriotic duties.

Elizabeth Watkins, a sophomore who is majoring in ethics, politics and economics, described herself as a "leftist" and a "patriot." In her presentation, she attempted to reconcile the seemingly contradictory terms.

Dissent is essential to democracy, said Watkins, but "dissent has to be thoughtful." Watkins decried the tendency to oversimplify and the way people who espouse opposing viewpoints try to drown each other out. "Oversimplification," she said, "really only serves to obfuscate the truth."

The essence of democracy is tolerance, she said. "We have to respect ideas we don't share."

Aaron O'Connell, a Ph.D. candidate in American studies, echoed that view.

There are two types of patriotism, he contended: good and bad. The "bad" kind, he said, is always based on emotions. "It's not an opinion or a set of values," he noted. At its best, O'Connell said, patriotism reflects a sense of belonging, a "pull toward community." This feeling increases the care citizens show for one another, he added.

"We Like Us" might be the slogan of the good patriot, he said, while the corollary for the bad patriot would be "We Like Us Because We're Not Them." The latter is the essence of intolerance, he argued, adding that this kind of thinking is the enemy of the positive feeling of "connectedness" to one another.

O'Connell described those who act on their intolerance or undermine the rights of others as "deal breakers," adding that individuals should be judged on their behavior not their ideology. O'Connell echoed Watkins' observation that it is by maximizing their tolerance of difference that Americans best serve the democratic values they treasure.

As a student at Yale, said senior Schyler Schouten, he thought "it was our job to understand what was going on." Yet, he added, he doesn't think understanding what patriotism is all about is an academic exercise. "There's a positive, emotional aspect of patriotism ... at the level of what's in your heart," he asserted.

Shouten said he discovered his own patriotism in a remote corner of the arid plains of central China. He described meeting a family while on a walk one day -- a father, mother and their young daughter. Learning that he was an American, the parents began talking enthusiastically about how they planned to send their daughter to live with a distant relative in the United States.

Shouten recalled that the Chinese father said, "We wanted her to grow up in a place where if she did well in school, she could do well in life," and that he replied, "Yeah, America is good."

-- By Dorie Baker


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Faculty elected to prestigious U.S. scholarly societies

Slowly but surely, historic house gets a new home

Yale affiliates honored for work in the arts

Center promoting elderly independence marks 10th year

Summertime at Yale

Italian scholar Guiseppe Mazzotta is named a Sterling Professor Professor

Günter Wagner is appointed the first Alison Richard Professor

Arjun Appadurai is chosen as next term's DeVane Professor

2003 Commencement Information

Federal grant funds researchers' study on risk factors for asthma

Program supports graduate students' language study

Alumni return for weekend celebrations

Former Eli football players to discuss the sport's impact . . .

Conservation leader establishes new scholarship at F&ES

Program will help Chinese leaders plan for sustainable development

Two scholars take work in 'new directions' with Mellon fellowships

UNIVERSITY TEACH-IN

Pediatrician discusses 'paradox' of dyslexia in new book

SOM announces winners of inaugural business competition

Display features hopping, croaking 'Jewels of the Rainforest'

Familiar Bible stories depicted in fabric in new ISM exhibition

Search committee named for Law School Dean

Four undergraduates win nonfiction awards in writing contest

Campus Notes


Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News

Bulletin Board|Yale Scoreboard|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines

Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs Home|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page