As a young child I read a book that touched me deeply. Man Without a Country told the tale of a man, an American, who was condemned to live his life forever at sea, unable to again stand on American soil.
The longer this man was denied the comforts and freedoms of this country, the more he realized just how much he lost through his exile. I do not recall the crime for which he was convicted, or the reason for this particular punishment, but I remember thinking how horrible it would be to never have a place to call home, to be forever prevented from reaching that place which once had been home.
It probably struck me a little harder than most of the children my age, as I was one of those military brats, uprooted every few years, taken from one end of the country to another, time and again the new kid. There were times when I strongly identified with the man with no country, knowing in my childish, innocent way the painful stirrings of memory.
Perhaps this is why I feel so strongly about our men and women overseas. Yes, a large part of it is as a result of being raised in a home where service was valued and "patriot" was not an insult. But a significant part of it comes from the sense of forever being away from that mythical, beautiful place called Home.
For all of the men and woman overseas who serve and protect not only this country but the downtrodden and weak of inhospitable lands, you're held tightly in the hearts of many of your countrymen. May you never feel like Men and Women Without a Country. Even as nay-sayers and their sycophantic cronies point at isolated wrongs, smearing all of those who serve, remember that little school children pray for your safety every day.
Mama,
The man you remember from that book renounced his citizenship. It was not taken from him. He disliked America so much, he went to the trouble of informing the US State Department that he no longer wished to be a US citizen. The problem was, like all lefty ass-hats (a little Rachel nostalgia for me), he didn't think the problem through. He could not become a citizen of another country, because he was not a citizen of ANY country, so he had to live out the rest of his life (40+ years?) on a ship. When he was transferred to other ships, they had to do it by launch, as he was not allowed to leave any ship while in port, as he had no passport, or equivalent.
As a child, (I'm early 30's), we also learned about this man. He was used by the teacher as a shining example of someone who stuck by their convictions, even when it was inconvenient. I never bothered to learn more about him, as the teacher probably hoped we wouldn't. His "sacrifice" was a reason that I hated America for so long, even while in the Marine Corps. It was only after I opened my eyes and looked around that I realize that I had been lied to. Thank you for reminding me about this man. I will now use him again as motivation, but this time, as a shining example of what NOT to do.
Posted by: LC The Humble Devildog at May 6, 2004 03:33 AMI know that sort of feeling too - of not knowing where 'home' is when people ask - because I've moved around so much. I was even born on the move - in Erie - but never lived there.
I find home to be (tritely) wherever the heart is.
Great post, and sounds like a great read. I'm going to buy it.
Posted by: maura at May 6, 2004 06:02 PMWow, Devildog, I honestly never looked at it from that angle. I can see, too, how easily it could be misrepresented like that.
Makes me wonder what my 16 year old knows about the story all of a sudden. Hell, for that matter, my 9 year old is reading on a high school level and I'm homeschooling her. I might give it to her too. (I just sometimes worry that while she can read the words and comprehend them, there's still more there she can't quite "get" yet, the nuances that she's just not got the life experience to fully grasp.)
Like Mama (I'm 44, maybe the way it was presented to us is the difference between a generation?) I was always struck by how sad it was that he couldn't go home and that they wouldn't let him "take it back." (As an anecdotal aside, I'm also a former military brat and was definitely raised similarly!)
Anyhow, while inspiring a patriotism and feeling of pride in me, it also always made me feel sad. It seemed like the worst sort of cruelty to me and yet he brought it on himself.
I know for a certainty it was instrumental in my lifelong determination to never say something I wouldn't want to be called on.
Posted by: Kate at May 6, 2004 11:10 PMIn the book, he was pointedly named, "Richard Nolan."
It was based on a true story, the facts of which I also forget.
Posted by: The Commissar at May 13, 2004 10:26 AMInteresting article and comments. Going to link to your site on buy womens leather wallet not too relevant to leather wallets but your thread is cool.
Posted by: shop womens leather wallets at March 28, 2005 06:45 PMInteresting article and comments. I am going to put your site on buy mans leather wallet here.
Posted by: mens shop leather wallets at March 28, 2005 06:59 PMMy favorite artist is Renior,how about you?
Edward hopper paintings
Mary Cassatt paintings
gustav klimt paintings
oil painting reproduction
Oil Painting
handmade Oil Painting
mark rothko paintings
Old Master Oil Paintings
Nude Oil Paintings
dropship oil paintings
Mediterranean paintings
Oil Painting Gallery
Alfred Gockel paintings
Alexei Alexeivich Harlamoff paintings
Aubrey Beardsley paintings
Andrea del Sarto paintings
Alexandre Cabanel paintings
Anders Zorn paintings
Anne-Francois-Louis Janmot paintings
Allan R.Banks paintings
Andrea Mantegna paintings
Arthur Hughes paintings
Albert Bierstadt paintings
Andreas Achenbach paintings
Alphonse Maria Mucha paintings
Benjamin Williams Leader paintings
Bartolome Esteban Murillo paintings
Berthe Morisot paintings
Cheri Blum paintings
Camille Pissarro paintings
Carl Fredrik Aagard paintings
Caravaggio paintings
Claude Lorrain paintings
Claude Monet paintings
Charles Chaplin paintings
Diane Romanello paintings
Diego Rivera paintings
Don Li-Leger paintings
David Hardy paintings
Dirck Bouts paintings
Dante Gabriel Rossetti paintings
Daniel Ridgway Knight paintings
Edmund Blair Leighton paintings
Eugene de Blaas paintings
Eduard Manet paintings
Edwin Austin Abbey paintings
Edward Hopper paintings
Edgar Degas paintings
Emile Munier paintings
Edwin Lord Weeks paintings
Fabian Perez paintings
Francois Boucher paintings
Frank Dicksee paintings
Ford Madox Brown paintings
Federico Andreotti paintings
Fra Angelico paintings
Frederic Edwin Church paintings
Frederic Remington paintings
Francisco de Goya paintings
Filippino Lippi paintings
Francisco de Zurbaran paintings
Gustav Klimt paintings
Georgia O'Keeffe paintings
Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger paintings
Guillaume Seignac paintings
George Owen Wynne Apperley paintings
Gustave Courbet paintings
Guido Reni paintings
George Inness paintings
George Frederick Watts paintings
Guercino paintings
Howard Behrens paintings
Henri Fantin-Latour paintings
Horace Vernet paintings
Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky paintings
Il'ya Repin paintings
Igor V.Babailov paintings
Juarez Machado paintings
Joan Miro paintings
Jean-Honore Fragonard paintings
Jehan Georges Vibert paintings
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings
James Childs paintings
John Singleton Copley paintings
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings
Joseph Mallord William Turner paintings
Julien Dupre paintings
Julius LeBlanc Stewart paintings
Jeffrey T.Larson paintings
Jean-Paul Laurens paintings
Jules Breton paintings
Johannes Vermeer paintings
Jacques-Louis David paintings
John Everett Millais paintings
James Jacques Joseph Tissot paintings
Jules Joseph Lefebvre paintings
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres paintings
John William Godward paintings
John William Waterhouse paintings
John Singer Sargent paintings
Jean-Leon Gerome paintings
Lorenzo Lotto paintings
Louis Aston Knight paintings
Leon Bazile Perrault paintings
Leon-Augustin L'hermitte paintings
Lady Laura Teresa Alma-Tadema paintings
Louise Abbema paintings
Leonardo da Vinci paintings
Lord Frederick Leighton paintings
Mark Rothko paintings
Montague Dawson paintings
Mary Cassatt paintings
Maxfield Parrish paintings
Martin Johnson Heade paintings
Nancy O'Toole paintings
Philip Craig paintings
Paul McCormack paintings
Patrick Devonas paintings
Peder Mork Monsted paintings
Pierre Auguste Renoir paintings
Peder Severin Kroyer paintings
Pieter de Hooch paintings
Pietro Perugino paintings
Peter Paul Rubens paintings
Rudolf Ernst paintings
Robert Campin paintings
Rembrandt paintings
Raphael paintings
Salvador Dali paintings
Stephen Gjertson paintings
Sir Henry Raeburn paintings
Thomas Cole paintings
Theodore Robinson paintings
Titian paintings
Theodore Chasseriau paintings
Ted Seth Jacobs paintings
Vincent van Gogh paintings
Vittore Carpaccio paintings
Warren Kimble paintings
Wassily Kandinsky paintings
William Etty paintings
William Merritt Chase paintings
William Blake paintings
Winslow Homer paintings
William Bouguereau paintings