All that patriotism requires, and all that it can be, is eagerness to maintain intact and incorrupt the founding principles of the nation, and to preserve undiminished the land and the people. If national conduct forsakes these aims, it is one’s patriotic duty to say so and to oppose. What else have we to live for?
Kind of fitting to stumble across this almost 20 year old poem now. Written for a different time but still relevant.
