The last three paras. invites you to read the rest here:

[babylonsister]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=425966&mesg_id=425966

Reflections on Obama-Era Patriotism

snip//

In 2009, a year of so much peril and promise, it's time to define patriotism as our capacity to have social courage in our day-to-day lives, to learn from folks across the many fault lines that carve ignorance and indifference through America. We are only as patriotic as the company we keep, by which I mean, if you live in a homogeneous bubble, then you are missing out on the lived experience of what it means to be American today. Your understanding of this country is stunted and incomplete.

There are many things more patriotic than singing the national anthem or sporting a flag pin on your lapel: introducing yourself to a maintenance worker in your office building, calling up that diehard Republican cousin and asking her to breakfast, becoming friends with someone 30 years older than you or many tax brackets below you. And beyond the critical one-on-one interactions, it is profoundly patriotic to support big-picture policies that attack the class divide, strengthen public education, and fight discrimination on every level.

I cannot tell a lie. This country is amazing, but it's also still painfully segregated and will remain so until Americans collectively decide that true patriotism is treating one another -- regardless of status, political affiliation, or race -- like the potential teachers that we are.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Geez, get a few more hearts whydontcha?

Show off. ;)

[TahitiNut]

2. It must be the candlepower.

:dunce: