What makes a person a patriot?

AFW posted about her stat counter, and I had to jump on the bandwagon. It sounded fun, so I got one, too. She was right--that thing is addictive. It tells you who has been to your page, where they were referred from, etc. Tonight I got one that caused me to think. Someone had typed into a search engine, "What makes a person a patriot?" and my blog was brought up.

The question is worth an answer. I call my blog Politics of a Patriot, but what classifies a true patriot?

When I think of a patriot, I think of Mel Gibson's movie, The Patriot. I have seen this movie in full on one occasion, about a year ago. I tried to watch it recently, but I couldn't stomach it. I remember feeling like I was literally going to throw up and being frantic to turn the site off. In spite of me not being able to watch this, it shows a family of patriots--people who are willing to give thier very lives for their country.

I call my blog Politics of a Patriot. I chose this name because I love politics, and the patriot part, because I love my country.

I suppose it is possible for a person to be patriotic to any country, but it is America and a waving flag I think of when I think of the connotation of the word "patriotic."

Why do I call myself a patriot? I love my country. I love the United States of America. I don't think you have to be in the military to be a patriot and I don't think that if you are in the military it makes you a patriot.

All patriot aren't in the same party. (Alright, I will argue the point that there are no patriots in Nazi Party or Communist Party USA.) But a patriot can be a Democrat or a Republican--I can't believe I just said that--but they still have that one thing that ties them together.

Anyone can say they love America. Few people do.

The dictionary defines the word patriot as one who loves his country, and zealously supports its authority and interests.

I believe a patriot is willing to die for his or her country. A patriot loves freedom and wants to spread freedom, but they do not want to abuse that freedom.

A patriot isn't necessarily American born. I remember reading Michael Yon's column about all of the soldiers he had met who were fighting in the United States military, who are not even citizens of the United States. These are patriots and they're not even citizens yet. We could all learn from these heroic soldiers.

I hope that I live my life in a way that people would describe me as a "patriot." I cannot think of a better name to be called.

Other hits I've gotten from search engines include, but are not limited to:

Funny Monkeys
Rednecks
Overweight Soldiers
JAG Corps Overweight (WHAT IS UP WITH THE OVERWEIGHT THING?)
My head is here but my heart is somewhere else (Whaaat?)

To say that other referrals are inappropriate would be an extreme understatement.

THOSE STUPID PINKOS

I try to throw my support into SUPPORTING our troops, rather than focusing on those who would demean them. However, sometimes our anti-troop (yes, that goes beyond even anti-war--which that, too, makes me mad) protesters overstep their boundaries. Code Pink continues to do just that. I have had enough.

Most of you have heard me mention the Pathetic Pinkos (aka Code Pink.) If you haven't, go check out Andi's After Action Report. As you can see, the Pinkos are a group of absolutely horrid anti-American troop-protesting imbeciles. Now that I've got that out of my system...

I am absolutely sick of it being TOLERATED that we would let a group of pot-smoking hippies and idiotic women's libbers protest not our war policies but our actual TROOPS outside a place where they are recovering from the tragedy's of war--Walter Reed Army Hospital. To me, this is unacceptable.

The Pinkos are going on a book tour in support of their book, "Stop the Next War Now." (Note to the idiots: That's what we're doing right now in Iraq and Afghanistan.) The nearest they're going to be to me is good old St. Louis. Would anyone besides me like to pay them a visit? See where they'll be nearest to you here.

Where I'd really like to be is with the FReepers outside Walter Reed.