Patriotism isn’t about colored ribbons or bumper stickers on your car. It isn’t about waving a flag or chanting “U-S-A” at a sporting event. It certainly is not about wearing an American flag pin on your lapel. These are all pleasing symbolic displays of patriotism, but they are not patriotism in and of itself.

Feeling patriotic is not the same as being patriotic much like having feelings of love is not the same thing as being loving. Saying you support the troops is not the same as doing something to support the troops. Being patriotic is about what you do, not what you feel.

It is patriotic to:

• pay your taxes
• perform jury duty
• vote
• serve in the military
• serve in the Peace Corps
• serve in the government
• volunteer in civic organizations
• engage in peaceful dissent
• correct your country, when it’s wrong
• support and defend the Constitution
• exercise your constitutional rights
• prosecute those who break the law
• defend those accused of breaking the law
• seek justice in the courthouse instead of the street
• immigrate legally into the country

It is unpatriotic to:

• use positions of public trust for personal gain
• engage in rumor and gossip political campaigns, bereft of facts
• place party politics before country
• make political spectacles out of the minor offenses of the opposing party
• block or minimize investigations into the major offenses of your own party
• ignore the spirit of the law while abiding by the letter of it
• suppress voter turnout
• character assassinate those who don’t agree with you
• pardon the legal offenses of those who support you
• question other’s patriotism because they don’t have the same political beliefs
• undermine the Constitution
• deny other’s their constitutional rights
• place profit ahead of national interest
• lie under oath

Both of these lists could be much larger, but I’m sure you get the idea. Symbols of patriotism are important, but acts of patriotism are what really matter. It’s the difference between style and substance. Which one do you care most about?