Hartford Public High School - Classbook Yearbook (Hartford, CT)

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268 THE CHRONICLE ORATION THE TRUE PATRIOTISM fl' ROBABLY at no time in the history of our country have we been confronted with so many crises: the spectacle of the - whole outside world, fighting within itself, threatening to drag us into the whirlpool, foreign foe on every side without, endless complications and discontent within! A time when every red-blooded man takes an active interest in the affairs of his country, a time when excitement is at its highest pitch, when every selfish motive gives way to one common devotion, when love of country is at its height, when patriotism is paramount! And so it should be. Probably there is no one word in the whole language that has a greater import. Respect, honor, devotion, loyalty -all are conveyed in its meaning. An American who has no love of country does not deserve to be an American, and the man, who- ever he may be, who does not possess some feeling of patriotism is capable of no worthy emotion. But great and powerful as this sentiment may be, it bows its head, and ofttimes unwillingly, to a still greater power. Ever since the beginning of the world, and the creation of man, two primary forces have been fighting against each other. Their com- bat has raged longer and greater than any mere war that men have fought. They have raged since the creation, they will endure to the end of time. Together they form one of man's most powerful in- stincts. Beside it, almost every other is subservient. It is the primal instinct of right and wrong. And now we have-patriotism versus the instinct of right and wrong. In these two we find the greatest internal problem we have to deal with today. Should the instinct of right and wrong be sub- servient to the feeling of patriotism? Should a man, feeling that his country is absolutely wrong, nevertheless defend its policy, simply because it is his country? The people, as a whole, say yes. The level- headed thinker shakes his head-and says nothing. And the question remains logically unanswered. Patriotism needs no apology. It is a wholly natural and desirable outcome. What man can trace the glorious history of our country, throughout the centuries, and then, surveying it as it stands today,

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