Uneasy with America's flag-waving fervor? Button up or risk being ostracized.
Expressions of patriotism are so fervent since the terrorist attacks that citizens who do or say anything against the tide risk suffering a public backlash.
PHOTO: AP
After getting an earful from angry residents, school superintendent Louis Ripatrazone in Roxbury, New Jersey, rescinded his order to remove "God Bless America" from school signs. He thought a religious reference might be offensive at school.
University of Texas professor Robert Jensen received unfriendly e-mails and calls after writing an editorial suggesting that the attacks were "no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism" committed by the US.
University president Larry Faulkner dismissed suggestions that Jensen be fired, but called his views a "fountain of undiluted foolishness."
Peace activists in Buffalo, New York, say they were labeled "un-American" and "crazy communists" by hecklers.
Since thousands died in the Sept. 11 suicide crashes in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, some Americans have been pondering what it means to be patriotic.
Is it unpatriotic to sell stocks? Is it wrong to flip the channel when God Bless America, not Take Me Out to the Ballgame, is sung in the seventh-inning stretch? Is it un-American to criticize US President George W. Bush?
When it comes to being patriotic, "a lot of people are willing to talk the talk," says sociology professor Charles Moskos of Northwestern University. "But if you really want to walk the walk, then donate blood or enlist in the military."
On the other hand, Moskos says it's not unpatriotic to openly disagree with the president, refrain from flying the flag or sell stocks in a down market. "If I sold the stocks and sent the money out of the country, that would be unpatriotic," he adds.
And switching TV channels? "What's patriotic about watching flag-waving while God Bless America is being sung?" Moskos asks. "A lot of this is make-believe patriotism -- patriotism on the cheap."
Some have chosen to see the attacks on a more global level.
At a mosque on Chicago's northwest side, Jews, Muslims and Christians prayed together and sang for peace. Some carried handwritten signs of unity, including one that read "Shalom, Salaam, Peace."
But the American flag was nowhere to be found.
"This was not just an assault on Americans -- but an assault on the whole world," says Amanda Klonsky, a community organizer with the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. The group is helping organize "prayer circles" in and outside Chicago area mosques.
"We need to start thinking of ourselves as an international family," Klonsky said.
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