3 July 2014
By Megan Fincher
National Catholic Reporter
"David McReynolds, 84, worked for the War
Resisters League from 1960 until his retirement in 1999. On Nov. 6,
1965, he was one of five men who publicly burned their draft cards at
New York's Union Square, merely three months after the United States
declared public draft-card burning a felony. In 1980, McReynolds became
the first openly gay man in U.S. history to run for president of the
United States, representing the Socialist Party USA.
What is patriotism?
At 84, and having been active for many years in the War Resisters League
and the Socialist Party, particularly in the struggle to end the
Vietnam War, I've had much reason to think about the meaning of
patriotism. My primary allegiance is not to the United States but
perhaps to my own immediate community here in the Lower East Side [of
Manhattan], which I can "touch and feel." It is impossible for me to
feel either "loyal" or "disloyal" to the United States. There is so much
good in our history that I affirm, and so much evil, which I must
oppose, that I think the best definition of patriotism is loyalty to the
human race, under constant threats of war and environmental
devastation, not to any single nation state...."
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