Am I a U.S. Patriot?

Can a liberal, progressive Democrat from CT be a PATRIOT ?????

Some people consider this an oxymoron but I say no. Here’s why….

• I don’t drive around with a gigantic US flag in an oversized pick-up truck but I show my patriotism because …….

• I have worked every weekend for the last 20+ years at a second job to support my family. More recently I have been working a 3rd and 4th job. As a PATRIOT, I do not buy this trickle down theory of giving tax breaks to the rich so that somehow a working class guy like me can benefit. Show me the money…I haven’t seen it yet.
• I put four kids through college and am mentoring four kids to be decent, law abiding citizens. Proud to be Americans but more importantly appreciating their American birthright while remaining keenly aware of the trials and tribulations of those who suffer in third world hellholes and war ravaged lands.
•  I have worked tirelessly in the fields of community development, affordable housing and more recently in mental health for the last 30+ years, so don’t tell me that I haven’t contributed to America. Me out of touch with reality …hardly since I live reality every day at work. 

• I’m as aggressive as anybody else concerning terrorists (both foreign and domestic).   

• Give me one hour alone  with a Bin Laden type character and see who emerges from that room. 
• For that matter, give me one hour alone with the likes of Dylan 
  Roof of the Savannah Massacre, or Timothy McVeigh of the Oklahoma City bombing or Bernie Madoff of the Ponzi Scheme and see who emerges from that room.

Remember, I am an Irish-American and there is a reason that they call us the Fighting Irish.

• I haven’t been target shooting or held a gun permit since my twenties. It’s time to start practicing again and renew that permit.
• My ancestors were all Union soldiers. My father and all my uncles served in WW2. My father and most of my uncles were cops. Not a profession for the wimpy or faint of heart.  My great Aunt Kate was the first to hire an African-American driver for her moving company in the 1940’s, which was unheard of in those times. My late uncle Austin told stories of the time the Catholic Church was threatened to be burned down by an anti-Catholic, anti-Irish mobs in Providence RI until the parishioners surrounded the church armed with bats to protect it. My uncle Tom hired the first African American worker in a transportation union in RI much to the consternation of co-workers.  My wife got to visit Auschwitz in Poland when tracing her Polish roots and yes the Holocaust did exist for those idiots who spout the untruth that it did not exist.  

So…….

• Don’t wave that rebel flag in my face. Put that rebel flag in a museum and include it in the curriculum of social studies classes  as part of American history not as a symbol of American hate.
• Treat the KKK hood and the ISIS flag a symbols of terrorism and give these domestic and international symbols of terrorism no mercy and no quarter. 
• Be intolerant of any felony immigrant but be equally intolerant of any “good old boy” American who commits any act of violence against  our fellow Americans. 
• Support non-violent demonstration against injustice whether it be an infringement of our freedoms of the press, freedom of speech and freedom to assemble.  

So yes I am a PATRIOT, I am a New Englander, a progressive,  a liberal, a democrat. Proud of it all and ready to defend our freedoms in the tradition of my colonial ancestors.