For Patriot Dreams
On Monday morning, I will join the Northport Community Band in a concert at the Northport, Michigan Village Cemetery. This is my first performance with the NCB, a group that includes a range of musicians from college students home from the summer to three former college band directors. I haven't played on Memorial Day for five years, since I retired--and I've missed it. The piece, below, is a reprint from May of 2010.
I'm not much of a flag waver, really. I always thought that author James Baldwin captured my feelings precisely in Notes of a Native Son when he wrote:
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
I still believe, heart and soul, in the shining ideals of democracy, however --equality under the law, the American common school, a free, high-quality education for all children, simply because they deserve it. Thirty years of teaching school have given me a hard crust of cynicism about many things related to education and America. But I never lost my enthusiasm for the Memorial Day parade.
I'm not much of a flag waver, really. I always thought that author James Baldwin captured my feelings precisely in Notes of a Native Son when he wrote:
I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
I still believe, heart and soul, in the shining ideals of democracy, however --equality under the law, the American common school, a free, high-quality education for all children, simply because they deserve it. Thirty years of teaching school have given me a hard crust of cynicism about many things related to education and America. But I never lost my enthusiasm for the Memorial Day parade.