Basically patriotism is mainly about energizing young men to go fight the next war. That is it. I know most of us think hardly any of us will ever have to go do that, but logic and history tells us that some time, some generation will have to. Then, flag waving is one way to motivate young men to lay down their lives…

It would probably help if we could stop the NFL, MLB etc. from stopping all their military connections, as well as flag waving.  I remember in Australia in the 1960s, every movie started with the red coats playing “God Save the Queen”!

If you live here already, you probably don’t want to leave. So that means making this place as good as it can be. Of course, America is a lot like Europe in the sense that there are rich parts like Scandinavia (New York, California) and then poor places like Spain or Greece (Alabama, Mississippi).

I know that racist “science” was part of Enlightenment, however, there are parts of it that are worth saving - individual rights, for instance.