Americanizing America

"There are philosophers who assure us, that in the future, patriotism will be regarded not as a virtue at all, but merely as a mental stage in the journey toward a state of feeling where patriotism will include the whole human race and the whole world."

— Theodore Roosevelt, 1894

The struggle for the next 100 years will not be whether the 21st century can be an American-dominated one like 20th century, but whether America can remain America.

In the most recent months two central questions have dominated the political debate: for how long should America wage war in Iraq and who can legally live in our country?

The first involves our nation's fight against external enemies. The second centers around the physical presence of individuals here that are from abroad. Neither question addresses ways to preserve permanently the oxygen of our democracy and patriotism if the current war, for better or worse, is to be settled. As leaders in Europe grapple with a return to overt forms of patriotism, as evidenced by Gordon Brown's order for public buildings to fly the Union Jack in Great Britain and Segolene Royal's call for the French to fly the tricolor during the last presidential election, one wonders about the state of national pride in our own country.

Even as cities across the country celebrated Independence Day last week, some signs indicated a waning of the American spirit. The Chicago Tribune reported that sales of American flags were down almost 50% at the Illinois-based flagmaker, FlagsUSA. The company's corporate secretary, Kimberly Sklarz, bemoaned the situation and blamed it on an unpopular war: "It is a very sad time right now. We are just kind of baffled by how things are going and all because of the war. We expected it to make some kind of effect on the company but it is getting pretty bad."

Some 1970s-style malaise is to be expected with Americans dying in battle and with the president's popularity plummeting. But something worse seems to be afoot. The circumstances of the moment appear to be reinforcing post-patriotic views crystallized back in that era of Vietnam and Watergate.

Worse, this resurgent wave of relativism is striking just as America must absorb and acculturate recently arrived immigrants. Forget the flap over immigration for a moment. The imperative is making sure all Americans — those born here and the newly arrived — learn enough about our country to see that patriotism transcends whoever the resident is of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Patriotism, after all, isn't partisan. America has been blessed to have a particularly proud patriotic labor movement compared to many other nations.

At a time when 12% of young voters were born in another country and when 20% of them have a parent who was born abroad, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, it's important for America to do a better job transmitting its DNA to its newest voters.

In the quote cited above from an essay Roosevelt wrote in 1894, "True Americanism," he further wrote "it is not only necessary to Americanize the immigrants of foreign birth who settle among us, but it is even more necessary for those among us who are by birth and descent already Americans not to throw away our birthright."

Roosevelt was prescient in his words. He was right to worry about Americans, both old and new. Even if we no longer think about "Americanizing" people as was done 100 years ago, it's not a bad idea to incorporate patriotic ritual and civic training into today's schooling. Arizona, a state on the front line of the immigration debate, is on the cutting edge. It put into effect last week a new law whereby schoolrooms must fly the flag and contain the Constitution and Bill of Rights. While Arizona unfortunately passed the law without providing adequate funding, initiating a mad dash for private donations, it recognizes the importance, even symbolically, of the flag and such historical documents.

Efforts, such as those of Arizona, start the work of inculcating and promoting American values to all of our citizens. Roosevelt wrote that the most important test of citizenship was not race or creed but that "we all work together, heart, hand, and head, for the honor and the greatness of our common country." For America to survive, not just physically, but as the special country it has been since July 4, 1776, a similar effort to the one Roosevelt foresaw is required.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.