What is patriotism? Is it flying the flag or singing the National Anthem? Is it serving in the military or reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? What a really constitutes a person who loves this country called the United States. What makes a truly great American?

I have never believed that outward appearances constitute love or devotion for a country. It’s easy to drape oneself in red, white and blue and spout phrases thought to be indicative of a grand fealty to our nation. What is often more difficult is loving this country so much that one has to be almost like a loving parent correcting troubling behaviors in a child. A truly good citizen of the United States is willing to point to its flaws and suggest ways of correcting them. A true patriot faces the struggles and mistakes of the nation’s history and makes changes designed to move the country into the future, not to repeat or honor the sins of the past. Patriotism is not showy but we know it when we see it. 

No worldly creation has ever been perfect and the United States of America certainly has not been so, but it has often found moments when it served as a beacon of hope in a tumultuous world. The ideals set forth by the Founding Fathers are noble but we all know how difficult they can sometimes be to foster. Even at the beginning our country lacked the courage to abolish the evils of slavery, instead using human’s as possessions and labor to generate economic success. It took a war and the deaths of hundreds of thousands to finally ring the death knell for the horrific practice. Today those who insist on reminding us of our original sin are right to never forget what we once did lest we lapse into forgetfulness and treat our fellow humans without regard. Patriots like Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and modern day heroes like Colin Kaepernick remind us that our ideals must extend to all Americans, not just those who conform to rituals. Those who help us to see our flaws more clearly are the true great Americans among us. 

Young Americans today have many ideas about how the United States should be. They are willing to make sacrifices for the well being of others. They want us to look at situations from the viewpoint of their impact on others, not just how things have always been. They look forward rather than looking back. They seek honest answers about how we treat one another and how we have failed in that regard in the past. They have real concerns about the ways that some things have always been and are filled with suggestions as to how to evolve together into the future. 

I don’t like using categorical terms to describe myself but in terms of age I am an older women, a person whose shelf life on this plant is becoming more and more limited with each passing year. Still I want to do my part to demonstrate my gratitude for living in this country for three score and fifteen years. I have seen the ugly side of our country and the glories of its goodness. I believe that if we indeed love this nation we should be determined to make any sacrifices needed to welcome and include all citizens into the absence of want and security. Everyone should have a place to call home, food to ease the pangs of hunger and medical care to fight the aches and pains that we all encounter. It is not up to us to create laws that punish those who are different or impede those who want to rise as I have done. 

Public education should be honest and focused on critical thinking, not religious beliefs. We must honor the rights of each person to believe in his or her own higher power, or even not to believe at all. It should not be up to us to decide how people should choose to think or live as long as they operate in compliance with just laws that do not fall more heavily on some groups. We should encourage many points of view, not discourage them and then be willing to work together for the benefit of all, not for a single party or person. 

When our young people use protest to point out what they see as our faults we should listen to them and applaud them for having the courage to bring our attention to areas where they believe we must improve. True patriots do difficult things for what they believe is the good of the country. Walking in step with how things have always been done is much easier than loving our land so much that one feels compelled to point out the changes that they believe must be made. 

Our political contests have grown out of hand. They are traveling circuses funded by wealthy groups hoping to get their share of the economic pie. They are sometimes raucous and filled with rhetoric and propaganda designed to make us fearful. Not all the red white and blue nor the number of flags are meaningful unless they are designed to lift all of us, not just those who walk in lockstep. The real patriots are quietly telling us the difficult things that we need to hear. They don’t need to raise their voices or play songs to demonstrate their earnest desire to honor our country by including everyone in the process of living together and sharing the opportunities of this land.