I get the feeling reading this that the author feels that "patriotism" is a bad thing. Maybe I'm not reading it well, but if I am reading correctly, then I have to disagree. It's good to love your country and want it to be the best place it can be. The problem with the right's idea of being patriotic isn't that it requires allegiance to the United States - it is that it requirs BLIND allegiance to the U.S.. Blind, unquestioning loyalty - to anything or anyone - is never a good idea. But you don't have to be blindly loyal to love the good things about the United States of America. You don't even have to agree with the current political regime. There is a lot of good here, although it may be hard to remember that when we are in the middle of this ridiculous "War" on an idea. You can love America and still recognize that we are far from everything we should be.

I was right!

I'm really moved. You went to all the effort to enrol your kid in an all white school in a privileged area, but you found out that the other parents failed to live up to your European liberalism that you had found so delightful in Paris. Well, what's a mother to do? Don't worry, I've heard that there are still plenty of well-off white liberals in areas of New York, where you can discuss how vibrant the latest Hip Hop music is over a fair-trade coffee.

Boy, this essay got on my nerves big time. Look, I am no right winger - I voted aginst GWB twice. But this article was pure liberal snobbery, and is the kind of thing that makes moderates sympathize with the republican party. Heaven forfend, you came in contact with families from the military - I hope you took a shower, so as not to contact some disease. It must be so much more enlightened in Manhattan or Paris. I'm sure you will return to France with the next book deal. Seriously, this article reads like a over-the-top satire of east-coast elitism.

As to the pledge of allegiance, let's read the words...I can understand how the mention of God is perhaps unnecessary, but the rest of the pledge is simply a few bland, brief, vague platitudes - how thin skinned are you? "Liberty and Justice for all" - are you against liberty and justice? Or is it the "indivisibl(ity)" that bugs you, as it would be preferrable to live in an easy divisible, fractious nation, like the former Yugoslavia, or Iraq, where lack of any national cohesiveness leads to genocide/oppression/war.

I repeat - any moderate who reads some crap like this this will tragically come away thinking less of the Democratic party. If you want to take a moralistic tone, fine, but I suggest one moral principle would be to show some basic respect (as opposed to contempt) for normal, mediocre, ordinary Americans, the rubes that we are. But I suppose stroking your own ego is more important than winning an election.

If you paid a little more attention to the article, you'd note the example of blind patriotism that Nina feared in her son. She tried explaining to her son that America was at war with another country and, as an unfortunate side effect, was killing and displacing civilians (I'll refrain from categorically calling them all "innocent civilians" so as not to piss off christianjb), and her son just could not believe it.

If all we teach our children in school in the early years of their education is that America is best and most moral nation in the world and that our military is beyond reproach, can we actually expect them to take seriously the parts of American history that they will inevitably learn in high school that clash with the idealized version of America that they learned in kindergarten/gradeschool? Or will they, when confronted with this conflicting view, simply make the conservative argument and say that their history teacher is slanting history with a negative, un-American viewpoint? All too often, a person's reaction to evidence that contradicts a predefined worldview is to reject the evidence rather than tweak their worldview. I, on the other hand, took my early gradeschool indoctrination with a grain of salt because while I was learning in school about the "First Thanksgiving" my parents at home were telling me about the Trail of Tears, which I'll admit was a big shocker to me at the time.

Because I was exposed early on to the contradiction between the American ideal and the American reality, I am able to listen critically to the statements of public officials (so long as the media provides me with sufficient and credible background information) without blindly agreeing with them because they represent America, the Infallible.

So I applaud Nina for trying to balance her son’s America-is-perfect brainwashing with a little dose of reality. As for patriotism, I am still patriotic. I get goose-bumps listening to or singing the Star Spangled banner, and I still hope to see America live up to it’s potential as a land of freedom, egalitarianism, and opportunity for all. I’m just not willing to ignore all of our shortcomings just so I can convince myself that we already have, and nor do I think it responsible to convince our children of the same.

Poor Nina. I do sympathize. As long as they stick to singing patriotic songs, it's unnerving, but kind of cute, n'est ce pas? But when they start inviting your kid to Bible study... well, that's enough to make any parent panic. Quite.

Umm, since I am a European atheist liberal, currently working at a university in Texas, I find your remarks a little bit off. I've never said the Pledge of Allegiance and couldn't recite it if I tried. I consider the war in Iraq to be a disaster, which has caused the deaths of untold innocent lives.

I drive through the Houston projects every day and see the exclusively black schools in crumbling areas surrounded by poverty. Somehow I find this discussion on the possible political indoctrination of 5 year olds a little- shall we say- shallow?

Besides, it's completely hypocritical for the author to try and instill her liberal point of view to her 5 year old. Since the child is not old enough to critically assess the political situation for himself, the author is just using equally wrong indoctrination in the other direction. Let him be a five year-old and let's leave the global politics to the adults.