SYMBOLISM AT WORK: Loyalty to land is often outweighed by loyalty to all sorts of other dividing things.

YEARS AGO, a friend at the time greeted my patriotic pronouncements with, “But Q, patriots are racists.”

He could not render arguments adding worth to his statement; but his continuing obdurate arguing in itself was what turned me to thinking he had a point.

See, that former friend had another "best friend" who held sway over him. Said bestie was prone to making arbitrary proclamations exposing his own prejudice: ideas for which he could offer little foundation other than more unsupported “insight” from equally biased males.

My own friend would accept these as truth and, without query or investigation, start spreading them around with utmost confidence.

Ready to support

Therein we see how loyalty can indeed be dangerous — blinding and making bigots of otherwise all right people. So can it be with patriotism, I had to admit.

Loyalty is like a loaded gun. Or like an insurance ad tagline: “What’s in your loyalty?”

To be human often means besmearing even the clearest, most beautiful of concepts. Ah, me.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1990) defines patriot as:

n. a person who is devoted to and ready to support or defend his or her country.

Sounds good. Must, surely, be good. Except when conflicting with other loyalties. As with white racist Americans, for whom patriotism means oppressing other ethnicities or trying to “send them back where they came from!”

They never stop to think about what’s expressed in the popular song, Icky Thump, by The White Stripes:

“White Americans/What, nothing better to do?/Why don’t you kick yourself out! You’re an immigrant, too.”

Country first ... but which country?

I see this kind of thoughtlessness in my own people. There are those here who would demand the right to rule, to have the best, take the most. From their lips spills devotion to Mother India or Mother Africa, with no mention of Mother Trinidad and Tobago.

Such as they do not think this nation warrants their first loyalty. Yet, they would be leaders here. How?

Who, then, are their “countrymen”?

Mayhap being many layers multi-ethnic makes it easier for me to be truly “Trini to de bone.” There is no other place I could have been forged. I am Indian, African, Spanish, Portuguese, Carib (indigenous Amerindian), Chinese. I am daughter of this soil. Unlike for my myriad ancestors, TnT is my first Mother Country.

Spawned, spurned, Trini to de bone

This nation that assembled me is the same that often disables me. Despite that, I am a patriot. All the time. Quite unlike many fellow Trinis, who wave the flag for national pride when we make it to World Cup or win Olympic gold (even then there are those who would rather spit than let shine).

My patriotism is not an act, to be played when all eyes on me; while my heart balks and butterflies in my viscera beg, “Don’t let anybody see the truth!”

My patriotism doesn’t just “deliver” when things are convenient, uncomplicated, cushy and money-making.

No, my patriotism isn’t about whose colour; what hair type; how much cash you control, or when I can cut your throat and drink you blood to my benefit.

My patriotism is simple: devoted to and ready to support or defend my country.

My whole country is my country. That’s what it means when I fly this flag.

Come good 

My photo here requires permission, but for FREE images of true Trinidad and Tobago esprit, touch the link: Jhaye-Q Trinbago Photography

Check out my patriotic act!: Trinbago Shine On