"It’s a long way from Washington, D.C., to Washington, Ind., where my father was born a century ago next January and where I am attending a Thomas family reunion. On the drive from Indianapolis, one passes towns that could fill a Norman Rockwell album. My favorite is named Freedom because, though the town has only a single flashing caution light, it dis­p lays many flags. If I don’t slow down, I will miss both.
  Driving past miles of corn­fields, listening to local radio stations that still play music, not syndicated political talk, and carry com­mercials for farm equipment and feed, I ponder what it means to be patriotic and to love America.
  Last week, senator and Dem­ocratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said that religion is not the exclusive property of conservative Christians. He is right. Neither is patriotism a trademark of the Republican Party.
  As with religion, some peo­ple on the right have used patri­otism, which should be a unify­ing theme, to divide Americans. My liberal friends love America as much as I do. They might dis­agree on some, or all, of my po­litical and religious beliefs, but that does not make them less in love with America, much less un-American.
  Many political and religious liberals have family members who have served or are serving their country in war and in peace. These have spilled their blood and given their lives to guarantee our freedom to dis­agree and to still live together.
  Here in this Washington, I am told stories of how our fami­ly stuck together, neighbor helping neighbor, during the Great Depression; of a grand­father who was out of work at the B & O Railroad for two years; of employees with more seniority than he who took a day off so he could work and earn some money; of one of his sons (my uncle) who had a pa­per route and would bring home eggs donated by sub­scribers.
  Few here judged their neighbor’s worth based on his or her political or religious beliefs. They helped each other. This was the real America. When the “boys” went off to war, they had total support from family, friends, neighbors and all they left behind and for whose benefit they fought. When those who survived came home,some voted for Democrats and some for Republicans, but no one questioned their patriotism be­cause of their electoral or reli­gious choices.
  Last year, I visited Norman­dy, France for the first time. At the American cemetery, there is not an “R” (for Republican) or “D” (for Democrat) on the grave markers of those who died on D-Day.
  The 2008 presidential candi­dates and their supporters should be asked not to question the patriotism of their oppo­nents. Surely, most of us prefer debate and discussion of the issues that confront us to a litmus test about whose blood runs more red, white and blue.
  Leaders of many nations, in­cluding America, have used pa­triotism to persuade citizens of policies that are not always in their country’s best interests. Hitler’s deputy, Herman Goer­ing, cynically observed: “Natu­rally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is under­stood. But after all, it is the lead­ers of the country who deter­mine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the peo­ple along, whether it is a de­mocracy, or a fascist dictator­ship, or a parliament, or a com­munist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and de­nounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
  And still we love America for opportunities that do not ex­ist in such proportion in any other nation. A person who crit­icizes a particular policy does not necessarily love his country less than one who supports that policy. G.K. Chesterton said, “ ‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a des­perate case. It is like saying ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’ ” After 231 years, we still try to make wrong into right and cheer the right and the nation that makes change possible when we succeed. That’s patri­otism."

That says it all to me