We all know that lately, there has been an over powering sense of unity and patriotism in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

American flags can be seen on almost every car, window, or lapel you can see.

People are learning the words
to songs they previously never gave a second thought to – songs like the "Star Spangled Banner," "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America" — so they can join in when they are sung at ceremonies, sporting events
and the like.

The feeling among many of us in the post- World Trade Center era is that we are all Americans no matter where we come from.

African, Italian, Caribbean etc, etc, is being dropped, at least for now, as an adjective usually hyphenated in front of the word American.

Among the demonstrations of this has been a call from the Board of Education to require children and teachers stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

School boards, teachers and students can opt out of such without being punished but some are calling for that option to be removed and made mandatory.

It hasn’t been for decades, after the numerous court fights waged by the parents of children who found the pledge and the salute objectionable to their religious beliefs.

People who want to see mandatory pledges will say that those who don’t participate are somehow un-American and they should show their support for the country that provides them with the means to have a better life.

I am not one of those people.

Parents with religious or ethical concerns, and their children, still exist and may ultimately have to endure many of the same ridicules their predecessors fought to remove.

And I don’t think someone’s commitment to the values of this country can be summed up in their recitation of 31 words or their refusal to do so.

The one thing that worries me about all the USA rah, rah feelings is that certain elements in our society may try to use this moment in time to sew some of their more conservative views into the fabric of our lives.

Elements we found questionable before but may concede to now under the guise of unity, strength and security.

The right wing is still out there — I hear them on the talk shows and the radio airwaves, spewing all the same offensive doctrines based on little fact, but now people who may have been closer to "reason" than to that way of thinking are giving those platitudes more of an ear.

Pre-war Germany was the same way.

There was crisis and the people sought order.

They sold their personal freedoms and ideas a piece at a time to the Nazis, a party that in the end could justify not only the billions of dollars in war damages the German military created, but also the millions of lives exterminated in the process.

Sometimes, liberty isn’t taken in one fell swoop, sometimes it is siphoned away slowly over time.

We should pay attention to the pennies of our freedom so the dollars will take care of themselves.

Never forget that before our government began hunting down Osama Bin Laden and the thousands of members of his Al Queda network here and abroad — people who have sworn themselves to destroying our way of life — the most disgusting single act against the nation was from within.

Timothy McVeigh was a man from a conservative part of the country who not only recited the national anthem as a child, he served in the U.S. Army.

He swore those same words again and again but he still killed hundreds of people in the name of some cause.

The beauty of the American way is that, in theory, it protects the rights of those who may not or don’t see things in the same light.

"Liberty and justice for all" are not just for those who know and can say the other 26 words in front of them.