Liberal
Many of you know I am a pretty liberal guy. I am liberal in my politics, outlook, style, humor, love, modesty, etc. You name it, I am probably more liberal than the the person next to me (at least in Oklahoma where I live!). However, if anyone would make the leap that that means I don’t love the country where I live as much as a conservative, they would be sorely wrong.
Periscope International
Yesterday during the Periscope video I was broadcasting showing me actually drawing the drawing above we got into a discussion about America with some of my friends in the UK and elsewhere. I responded to something someone said by saying I am a Promise Patriot. I liked it and wrote it down so as to not forget it.
Promise Patriot
And that is what I am. I am a Promise Patriot. I believe in the promise that was at the heart of founding of the United States. I believe it is still at our heart and I still believe in it. This past month we saw that promise in action with the Supreme Court decision regarding marriage equality. We are seeing it play out as well with the drawing down of the Confederate flag across the south and elsewhere.
What the Road Ahead Teaches
That also means I am not a blind patriot. I, as the founding mothers and fathers were, am a critical thinker patriot. I want us to ask hard questions. I want us to critique ourselves as if our lives depended on it. I want us to realize we are not at the end of a journey but in the middle of one, and that we have to be open to what the road ahead teaches us, not just what the past has.
Vacation 2005
Ten years ago we took one of our first big vacations as a new family. As a matter of fact, Linda and I weren’t even engaged yet (that happened a month later) but we were bonding as family. Linda, Caitlin and I went to visit my daughter Rebekah in Virginia and we went into the city of Washington D.C. for the 4th of July celebration at the Washington Monument.
Here are some pics from that day.
Looks like a Promise Patriot to me! This was 10 years ago. Makes me wonder where he is today and what he looks like. Probably a straight-laced business man in a button down shirt, who knows!
My favorite photograph from that trip. The Washington Monument behind the Jefferson Memorial.
Linda and Caitlin visiting with Abe.
Some random couple who were too attractive not to photograph.
The scene at the monument before the fireworks.
Linda and Rebekah listening to the band play patriotic music with the Lincoln Memorial in the distance with the World War II Memorial in between.
Drawing, photos and commentary © 2015 Marty Coleman / napkindad.com
Quote by Rep. Barbara Jordan, 1936 – 1996, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives