Call me naïve, outdated, old-fashioned, nothing but a housewife, but I honestly think that in the chaos of politics we have lost sight of what matters most to citizenry: patriotism.  I doubt that kids these days could even define patriotism, let alone recognize a patriot. Can I even go so far as to say that we, as an American people, are ashamed to be patriots? After all, what does it mean to be a patriot?

To properly define it, we must go back to the beginning of our country and remember what price was paid to have the country we now claim as our own.  This is a place where individuality was celebrated, where religious freedom was honored, where no dream was too big or impossible to consider.  If you had the willpower to explore, there were no boundaries.  And best of all, to reach our potential we needed others to reach theirs. There once was a time when it was dishonorable to not be a patriot because that meant you weren’t giving everything you had to make this country great, which meant you were holding out on your countrymen.  You see, patriotism isn’t about putting the government first; it’s about putting your neighbor first.  We have it all backwards now.

Politics isn’t all bad. It is a necessary tool for keeping law and order. Unfortunately, we now have loyalty to a political party or person rather than loyalty to the ideals and people of America.  The price we are having to pay for this mix-up is divisiveness, dishonesty, distrust. Citizens are now pulling away from love of country because they equate it to love of the government – and what is there to love about the state of our government these days? In desperation, it is every man doing what is best for himself causing us all to suffer instead every man doing his best, in which case we all benefit.  When government rules instead of governs, the identity of the nation disappears. The nation only thrives when the people are invested in it of their own free will.  That is patriotism at its best.

Don’t be afraid to be A PATRIOT.