WEAR A T-SHIRT (THEY'RE FREE)
The True Patriot Network believes that patriotism should emphasize the future, constructive change, and progressive civic values. The idea of country before self clearly outlines principles such as service, stewardship, tolerance, and equal opportunity. Our responsibility, as Americans, is to help the country we love reach its exceptional potential and promise.
Regardless of your party affiliation, we hope you'll agree that we owe America and the next generation a more purposeful politics. Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968, expressed this so well (see the column on the right) that we just had to put it on a t-shirt. Yes, that's a lot of text for a t-shirt! We find that it's an excellent conversation-starter. We wear this shirt to engage people, to create opportunities to discuss our beliefs and to learn about other people's.
Want one? Tell us what you believe about true patriotism. We'll send you a t-shirt. **
** Offer valid only while supplies last. Limit two per household. Limit one per email address. Shirts will be sent only to those who demonstrate earnest interest in the “tell us what you think…” box.
Robert F. Kennedy
[E]ven if we act to erase material poverty, there is another great task. It is to confront the poverty of satisfaction—a lack of purpose and dignity—that inflicts us all. Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP if we should judge America by that—counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.