I wish I could post a picture I have of myself in uniform. You would see the face of a young idealist. One who proudly wore the uniform of the U.S. Navy believing in all that it represented … duty, honor, being a part of a web of protection for the country and the people she loved. She took seriously the oath of office, pledging to protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. She stood ready to fight and die for those principles.

Nearly 30 years later, I still am.

As such, know that I am sick to death of people waving the Stars and Stripes over their own particular brand of bigotry and calling it patriotism. “We the people” does not mean those who look like you, think like you, believe like you, and rubber stamp that only a particular class, race, religion, or philosophy can qualify as “American.” Let me reiterate the preamble to the Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

“We the people … the people…”

I believe and practice diversity. I have a cadre of friends from a plethora of backgrounds and beliefs, ethnicities, languages, gender (far more than simple male and female, you know) … many of whom I disagree with on a regular basis. Effective diversity is not about agreement. It’s about respect. Lately, I have been regularly embarrassed by posts from highly conservative individuals who use my social media space to demand that we all speak English, live in a country “under God” (specifically their God by implication), and express childish and factless slurs against a president whom I suspect history will judge as one of the finest. Increasingly, it seems to me that those slurs and accusations are very thinly veiled racism.

The freedom upon which the ideas of this nation were built has been and continues to be hard won. The Revolutionary War primarily gained freedom of White men from English domination. Negro slaves were once recorded in the Census as three-fifths a man … to the best of my knowledge Black women were not counted at all. Women of all races fought, and sometimes died, a weaponless battle for the right to vote … to be recognized as full human beings.

Today, many strive to demean and limit the immigrant populations, forgetting that, except for the small percentage of full Native Americans, we are indeed a country of immigrants. The gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered population has long been the target of socially sanctioned oppression and is finally gaining basic acceptance of their very right to exist.

Every step toward true freedom for “We the people” has been fought tooth and nail by those who wish to hold a monopoly on what it means to be “American.” Despite this territoriality, the ideal of “We the people” survives and thrives.

As I write, we all celebrate Memorial Day. There are lots of versions of how the holiday began, but one in particular touches my heart deeply. On May 1, 1865, thousands of former slaves gathered in Charleston, South Carolina, to respectfully exhume the bodies of over 200 union soldiers from a mass grave and give each individual the honorable burial they deserved. It was a gruesome and dirty act of respect and gratitude for those who made possible their transition from three-fifths a man to become a part of “We the people.”

Perhaps more than at any other point in our nation’s history, we are closer to truly achieving the ideal of “We the people.” I shall continue to strive to treat all people with respect, but I can no longer remain silent when I see the ideal of patriotism used to defend a culture of bigotry and exclusivism. That monopoly on what it means to “be American” is broken. I wish it had never existed.