Liffrea
08-27-2009, 01:04 PM
ON the eve of the Battle of Britain in 1940, when the fate of our nation hung in balance, Spit- fire pilot Bill Millington wrote to his parents, “Being British, I am proud of my country and its peoples, proud to serve under the Union Jack and regard it as an Englishman’s privilege to fight for all those things that make life worth living: freedom, honour and fair play.” Like so many in the RAF, Millington made the ultimate sacrifice in the heroic, victorious struggle against the Luftwaffe, as his plane was shot down over the southern coast. Yet his words beautifully encapsulate the spirit of patriotism that galvanised the British people during the Second World War.
It was the same deep love of our island home which inspired the soaring rhetoric of Winston Churchill, drove men to fight on the beaches of normandy and the deserts of north Africa, compelled exhausted bomber crews to fly on missions for night after night over Germany, and enabled the British public to survive the Blitz so stoically. Patriotism is one of man-kind’s most noble ideals, an extension of the natural loyalty we feel to our families, friends and neighbourhood. In its highest form, it requires us to lay
down our lives to protect others, just as a devoted husband might risk all to defend his wife or children.
But in our modern age, patriotism is despised rather than admired. For the Marxist ideologues who now run Britain, love of country is a vice, not a virtue. As a result we are now encouraged to learn entirely the wrong lessons from the Second World War. Instead of being presented as a magnificent defence of our native land against a savage aggressor, the conflict is now portrayed as a triumph for the forces of political correctness against right-wing extremism.
http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/123120/Leo-McKinstry
It was the same deep love of our island home which inspired the soaring rhetoric of Winston Churchill, drove men to fight on the beaches of normandy and the deserts of north Africa, compelled exhausted bomber crews to fly on missions for night after night over Germany, and enabled the British public to survive the Blitz so stoically. Patriotism is one of man-kind’s most noble ideals, an extension of the natural loyalty we feel to our families, friends and neighbourhood. In its highest form, it requires us to lay
down our lives to protect others, just as a devoted husband might risk all to defend his wife or children.
But in our modern age, patriotism is despised rather than admired. For the Marxist ideologues who now run Britain, love of country is a vice, not a virtue. As a result we are now encouraged to learn entirely the wrong lessons from the Second World War. Instead of being presented as a magnificent defence of our native land against a savage aggressor, the conflict is now portrayed as a triumph for the forces of political correctness against right-wing extremism.
http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/123120/Leo-McKinstry