Semper Fidelis

Semper Fidelis, and being a good friend, parent, and patriot

What do these words mean to you?

Let's start with what it means to be a good friend. Friends don't let friends drive drunk. Right? If your friend starts getting into a relationship with an insane person, wouldn't you let them know? If your friend is happily married and then begins to 'play around' wouldn't you call them to task? Wouldn't you, being the good friend that you are, slap them around if you needed to, for their own good? Of course you would, if you were a good friend.

What does it mean to be a good parent? Does it mean that you stand by them and defend them regardless of whatever your child gets involved in? If you catch them shoplifting, would you take them back to the store, knowing that the lesson learned would help shape your child's moral fiber and better ensure their successful future? Or would a good parent just say, "Don't do it again"? I'm not asking if you would love them, regardless of their deeds. Of course you would still love them. You love them, and that's why you call them on the carpet, if you were a good parent.

What would a true patriot do, if he thought his country was wrong? Wouldn't you fight to get things changed, so that your country could be it's best? When someone says, "America, love it or leave it!" what are they saying, that if I love America I must accept tagging, inner city poverty, pollution, baseball players on steroids, or whatever? Wouldn't you fight the changing of tax laws, or the construction of a toxic waste dump site behind your house? Of course! But if you do not accept America, warts and all, does that mean that you hate America?

Unfortunately, I've never been a part of the U.S. Marine Corps. I do hold them in very high esteem however. I had a friend years ago, who had been in the Marines. Actually, he would correct me that, "Once a Marine, always a Marine!" The motto of the Marines is 'Semper Fidelis' which means 'always faithful' or 'forever true.' Maybe someone can clarify this for me, because I'm just a civilian. If you are faithful and true to your country, wouldn't you absolutely give your life to protect it from enemies, foreign or domestic? I know, you do this, and I am grateful. And a marine will never leave his buddy behind, right? I'm not trying to question the value or standards or worthiness of the US Marine Corps. What I am questioning is some of the civilian public who, seems like to me, have the impression 'Semper Fi' means we shouldn't question our leaders, who are supposed to work for us. If 'Semper Fi' means unquestioning loyalty, this is loyalist thinking, and therefore not something our founding fathers would have tolerated. It is certainly not how we civilians should be thinking.

What if members of the crew or the passengers on the Titanic could have sounded the alarm and turned the ship from disaster, kept it from hitting the iceberg? Would they have been asked, "What! You don't like this ship? You're always free to jump off!"

My mom used to tell me, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything!" So it pains me to no end when media corporate shills try desperately to defend the misdeeds and incompetence of this administration by saying that those who have a problem with it are unpatriotic. Radio talk show host Randi Rhodes clarifies, "It is not 'America, right or wrong,' it's 'America, when it's right it's right, and when it's wrong I right it!'

I think a forever faithful and forever true patriot would be a good friend to the constitution and the commonwealth, and would not stand for harm to come to it, even from within, even from ourselves. A faithful and true patriot is also like a good parent that would seek to guide their children always to excellence. Do you think I'm stretching it too far with the 'parent' analogy? Isn't our efforts at government, and hence this country's future, completely and totally linked to the future of our children?

Alcoholics and drug addicts depend on enabling people to continue in their addiction, because enablers never take them to task over what they are doing. Let us NEVER be enablers hiding behind a pseudo-patriotic (and false) 'Semper Fi' that says, "I don't care," and ALWAYS equate 'Semper Fi' with actually giving a damn. Then we can all say, "Semper Fi!"