I’m late on posting my most recent New York Sun column. This piece began as a post-July 4th meditation on American patriotism. I found a hook in rereading Theodore Roosevelt’s 1894 essay, “True Americanism”. “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,” wrote Roosevelt. ” I was struck by Roosevelt’s prescience at a time when our country has been divided by the debates over the war and immigration. For me, the important question is inculcating American values on those from abroad and born here. Continued Roosevelt: “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.”
Also, for those who missed it, here is my column from last week on the release of CIA documents.
Dispatches from Seth Gitell 