Page 9 - Sojourner Newsletter FALL 2022

Volume 99, Issue 4 9

PATRIOTISM AND SENSE OF CITIZENSHIP

My name is Rob DuBois, and I am a retired enlisted U.S. Navy SEAL. I've been
a Master Mason for several years, but it was only in 2022 that I finally stepped
up to seek acceptance into the National Sojourners. Part of the reason for my
interest was the obvious pleasure of spending time in fellowship with other
active duty and veteran service members. But more compelling was what I had
heard about our tradition of honoring not only this military experience we share
or support but specifically the patriotism and sense of citizenship with which I
was raised.

At age 56, I remember a time in America when we all recited the Pledge every
morning and felt a shared pride in our unearned privilege of being Americans.
Our nation is not without its faults, and in my opinion, Americans are not inherently "better" than individuals
in cultures around the world with their own claims to self-respect, for their own particular centuries of unique
accomplishment and failings.

But in the United States, I feel many have begun to lose touch with the deep meaning that comes with
inheriting this priceless blessing, American citizenship. The understanding has been the bond that holds us
together through our struggles, as the beautiful and messy experiment in a democracy that has been admired
the world over.

I've spent time working out there, in the world, in more than 30 countries over more than 30 years of travel,
and I know first-hand how our finest qualities inspire my friends in foreign lands. My fear is that if we forget
who we are as a people - warts and all - if we forget that we exercise our individual freedom through
submitting to the benefit of all our families and honor the voices of all our citizens, we will abandon that great
gift God has given us: the power to make a difference for a world in need.

I have been taught that every human being has a claim upon the resources with which I have been blessed. I
am moved and deeply grateful, therefore, that we in the Sojourners have the opportunity to renew our vows to
do our small part to help Americans continue to remember...and to give of their gifts, so that this charge of
duty to humankind may live on.

Robert Dubois, PO1 (USN, Ret.)
Fredericksburg Chapter No. 545
National Sojourners, Inc.