Claims of virtue are misguided

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, February 2, 2011

In her Sunday column, Kathleen Parker laments the omission of the word “exceptional” by the president, in describing America, during the State of the Union address this year. Really? Wouldn’t that descriptor then imply that America is entitled to rights and privileges not afforded to other countries? I know that many of our citizens believe that, but to expect our president to publicly affirm those beliefs seems arrogant, indeed.

At the risk of being slammed for making Nazi comparisons (and by the way, could someone explain to me why we shouldn’t learn from history? Isn’t that why we study it?), I would like to point out that Hitler rose to power in Germany by asserting that the German people were superior — exceptional, if you will — and that their birthright was being stolen by “lesser” peoples.

It is human nature for us to want to think of ourselves as better than others, whether we are American, British or Greek; and it was not, as Parker suggests, inappropriate for Obama to note that, when asked about it a few years ago in a press conference. Of course, that did not win him favor with the tea party. Whatever!

Dr. Martin Luther King warned, in a sermon about Vietnam, against the arrogance of believing that “God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world.” Patriotism does not entail vain aspirations to superiority. Some Americans may think so; I’m glad that the president does not.

Gina Parry
Snohomish