Patriotism

What is Patriotism to you?  Is it putting a flag in your yard on holidays to show your allegiance to your country?  Is it your willingness to serve at all costs in the armed services to protect your country and defend others' human rights to live in freedom?  Is it loving your country by loving your countrymen and loving the rest of the world by loving your country first?  Is it blindly following the leaders of your country, or the freedom of practicing your 1st amendment right to speak your mind and object if you believe your government is hurting your country?

Many a great mind have spoken on the subject of Patriotism.  These are just a few of the many quotes made by patriots whether you agree with them or not.  They did practice their right to speak on the subject.

"Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance.  It is also owed to justice and to humanity.  Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong." - Bryce James

"The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree." -Campbell Thomas

"A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation's flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth." -Henry Ward Beecher

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." -Abbey Edward

"Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country."  -Calvin Coolidge

"A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle."  -George William Curtis

"True Patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else."  -Clarence Darrow

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned.  When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him.  For then it costs nothing to be a patriot."  -Mark Twain

"A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works."  -Bill Vaughn

"We stand for freedom.  That is our conviction for ourselves;  that is our only commitment to others."  -John F. Kennedy

"He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland."  -Harry Emerson Fosdick

"Are you a politician who says to himself, 'I will use my country for my own benefit?'  Or are you a devoted patriot, who whispers in the ear of his inner self, 'I love to serve my country as a faithful servant?"  - Kahil Gibran

"A politician will do anything to keep his job, even become a patriot."  William Randolph Hearst

"Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't.  You cannot shirk this and be a man.  To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may."  -Mark Twain

"What we need are critical lovers of America.  Patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it."  -Hubert H. Humphrey

Wikipedia describes Patriotism as, "Patriotism is, generally speaking, cultural attachment to one's homeland or devotion to one's country, although interpretations of the term vary with contest, geography and political ideology.  It is a set of concepts closely related to those of nationalism."  

How would you describe it?