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I hope you’ll read this. It’s something that’s been inside me since my military service and I finally put it in writing. Probably the wrong venue, but… I’d like to encourage every American to stop, take a step back from their politics, and ask themselves an important question: 1/25

What does patriotism mean and what should it mean to our country? Red, Blue, Independent or otherwise… I’m not pushing buttons here. Think about it. Now overlay that with who we are as a nation today. It’s hard not to see that we have a problem. 2/25

Patriotism has lost its weight and its meaning where it matters most. It’s been coming for decades, but we are where we are. And the current administration is the most obvious & egregious example of my point. As an idea, the administration wields patriotism as a sword of righteousness, 3/25

used to both energize and demonize. They produce sound bites to galvanize and grow their following but do little that jibes with or works to deliver on those promises – sometimes working openly counter to those pledges. They feed us politically expedient, ever-shifting reasoning, 4/25

They claim half the population hates America simply because they disagree. They call concerned citizens terrorists for protesting, speaking out or defending one another. They engineer forces that bring anonymous intimidation to our streets leading to violence, deepening division, & even death. 6/25

They use slurs in true propagandist fashion to strip away the humanity of entire groups of people based on the actions of a few. Patriotism at the leadership level should be defined by actions not rhetoric. By uniting the people not dividing them. 7/25

And those actions should, without fail be rooted in the understanding that they work for us and that We, the People ARE America. Understanding patriotism should begin with the ideals that so many before us have sacrificed for, country-before-self, and occasionally humanity-before-self… 8/25