By Edwin Cooney
For as far back as I can remember, most Americans have expressed their love for our country from time to time. Me, too!
My love for America had its origin in my childhood expectation that there existed from somewhere beyond my comprehension a link between America and all that's equitable, fair, and good. I suppose it is a learned but confirmed love. I've been protected and nurtured by its components. They include the Constitution, people’s sense of equity, and an obligation to the ideal of democracy. Many Americans who have lacked the advantages and protections I've often taken for granted express love for American ideals yet to be fulfilled.
Then there are those who insist that once they've voted for the right candidate or ideology and it prevails, they will love America due to its "restored greatness.”
Each of us comprehends and expresses love differently. I've come to realize that I love a family member, a friend or even my country when their existence is of equal or greater importance or significance than my own well-being.
I remember one night during my teens when I was reading a map of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. I wondered if the inhabitants of those Communist countries were as miserable as I had been assured they were! I couldn't imagine otherwise, but I sensed there was something missing that I somehow needed to grasp.
In recent years, a former sweetheart of mine who served in the Peace Corps in Tito's Yugoslavia related an anecdote to me. A friend of hers told her how delightful and lovely the trips to the Dalmatian Coast were that the government made available annually. Today, Communism is over and so, too, are the annual delights to the Dalmatian Coast. So, what of our love?
Biblically, we learn that there are three types of love: Aros or romantic love, filial love or brotherly love, and agape or love for God. Each of these loves have their own rules and requirements. Hence, human love can hardly be unconditional love as God's love is for us.
In this time of righteous anger and suspicion, we must face and acknowledge the standards or conditions people require to love America. Some insist on loving Donald Trump's version of America. Others prefer to love Joe Biden's America. (Note: Somehow the idea of “conservative” and “liberal” America has gone by the boards!)
Finally, perhaps our greatest responsibility to whatever and whomever we love is our distinction between what we may approve as we express our love and what we must insist ought to be corrected by the recipients of our love!
Our capacity for love is so significantly powerful and consequential that it must be steadied by standards that both challenge and uphold all of the beloved!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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