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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Patriots & Loyalists: Heroes & Traitors

by - Sitaram

http://sulekha.com/chpost.asp?for...ilosophy&cid=93921&show=0

On "Religion & Ethics in World News" Rev. William Sloan Coffin, now in his
80's, was interviewed. When I mentioned his name to my father, age 87,
he scoffed and said "why, he is a TRAITOR because he travelled to Hanoi
to speak with the enemy during the Viet Nam war."

I retorted that, technically, George Washington was considered a traitor,
since he was a British subject who fought against British troops. My father
did not agree with me, saying,

"Why, thats different."

Below you will find the proclamation of King George III which declares the
actions of the revolutionary patriots as treason.

The American Revolution was an act of civil disobedience. Much good has
come out of that patriot victory of long ago. Perhaps Britain owes its
independence today to the victory
of those patriots who founded a nation which came to England's aid during
World War II.

History harbours stranger ironies than this. Yet, had Great Britain won the
war, then possibly George Washington and other patriots would have been
hanged as traitors.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran Minister, author of the acclaimed essay
"Cheap Grace", was hanged in Germany for his role in an assassination
attempt on Adolph Hitler. We see Bonhoeffer as a hero and martyr, but at
that time, in Germany, Bonhoeffer was a saboteur and assassin.

Rosa Parks broke the local law in an act of civil disobedience when she sat
in the front of a bus to protest racial segregation. Years later, she was
awarded a medal by Congress for her roll in the Civil Rights movement.

Gandhi was guilty of civil disobedience in the famous salt march, a plotter
of sedition in the eyes of British authority, but a patriot and liberator in the
eyes of the people of India.

The Philippine resistance to the American occupation was a form of civil
disobedience. The Amercans were supposed to liberate the Philippines
from Spanish rule, but instead, they
substituted American rule for Spanish rule.

One might argue that Judas Iscariot was patriotic, or rather a loyalist to
his established religion, turning over to the authorities a heretic, Jesus,
who was possibly inciting civil disobedience by his strange teachings.

How does one judge any person's life and actions in totality? How does
one sift out the patriots from the traitors in the winnowing fan of historical
hindsight?

The United States of America stands for many things which are good, but
the history of that nation harbors many acts which are shameful, slavery
being only one, but a most obvious, palpable example.

It is sometimes difficult to judge between patriot and loyalist, between
liberal and conservative, between hero and traitor.

I am searching the internet for info about Rev Coffin. I really never knew
much of anything about him, except this name. I never followed the news
much in those days of the 1960s and 1970s. Below you will see a list of
people, which include Wm. Sloan Coffin. What sort of people were these?
What motivated their actions? Is it fair or accurate to characterize them as
all the same, with similar agendas?

One review of a biography of Rev. Wm. Sloan Coffin describes him as
"flawed but heroic." Hero + Flaw = Tragedy, or does it?

A PBS special on the "Genesis" once stressed that the importance point to
observe about those Biblical characters, Abraham, and Moses, Jacob, et
al, is that they had flaws, but had their heart in the right place and
persevered.

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Complete post with quotes from interesting urls may be found at :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sitaram/message/1491

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