Daniel Chang Contreras: Patriotism isn’t a dirty word

Patriotism is not a dirty word. Pride of country is not something we should view with disdain, skepticism or disgust. On the contrary, there is no way to solve any issues we are facing if we do not have a sense of commitment for the place we call home.

Regretfully, Americans are becoming less likely to say they are very patriotic.

According to a Wall Street Journal poll conducted earlier this year, only 38% of Americans said that patriotism is very important to them, a catastrophic drop from almost 70% in 1998.

Worryingly, young Americans are less likely to feel patriotic than their grandparents.

These numbers are concerning. If few people genuinely care for the country, when push comes to shove, it will be easier for people to let the country fall apart instead of trying to fix it.

But I don’t mean to offer another “young Americans will be our doom” rant. No, I understand if young people see the state of America and say “there’s not a lot to be proud of,” or are ashamed of the dark spots on American history.

I understand feeling shame for your home country, I truly do.

I’m from Venezuela. Odds are, the only time you’ve heard about us is through bad headlines in the news: hyperinflation, people eating from the trash can, millions leaving the country, street protests and a brutal dictatorship that suppresses all dissent.

The prosperous country my parents lived in was a nighttime story for me. It was impossible to feel hopeful for the future if I saw with my own eyes how my city was slowly falling to pieces, and the government that was supposed to protect us killed protesters in the streets and imprisoned those who raised their voice.

It was natural to ask myself, how was I supposed to be proud of my country? What was I to be proud of? Should I wave the flag of a country that made life so difficult to millions?

However, I realized I was seeing the question backwards. My country was defined by food shortages or hyperinflation, but by the people who heroically withstood them. My country was not the soldiers trampling the people, but the protesters who risked their lives for a better future. My country was not only a government-made hellscape, it was a land of people who never surrendered.

The same lessons apply to America.

The United States is not only the country of Jim Crow and slavery but the country of Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. The U.S. is not a country of stagnation but the country that went to the moon and has the most Nobel prizes.

The United States is the country that has given home to millions of immigrants who came with nothing and made a life here.

So, don’t be ashamed of waving your flag.

After all, it is your country.

Born and raised in Venezuela, Daniel Chang Contreras grew up seeing how his country decayed from relative prosperity to utter chaos, poverty and authoritarianism under the socialist governments of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. Daniel is a speaker for the Dissent Project (dissidentproject.org), a project of Young Voices, a nonprofit talent agency for rising professionals in policy.

The Dissident Project provides high schools with access to informed, intelligent perspectives on how authoritarianism takes hold, what happens when it does, and what America can learn from current and former socialist states around the world. If you are interested in booking a dissident speaker, visit https://www.dissidentproject.org/contact