The Patriot Act

Anyone who knows me knows I am a patriot. I love my country, I get chills when I hear the national anthem, and I always stand, hand over heart, for the flag. As I've been watching the Olympics this winter, I'm left wondering, where are the patriots?

What I've seen is not a team of Americans united in their love of country and intent on defending our national pride. I've seen a lot of spoiled, whiny people and hotdogging show-offs who may or may not care what people think about their country, as long as they get attention. In my mind, this is the Olympics of "me, me, me."

So, what has caused this? What happened to patriotism? I mean, four years ago, we were a united front. We were fresh from 9/11, and we had something to prove. We won a record number of medals. Now, this year, we've got a fair amount, in fact more than in many previous years. But no one seems to care.

Well, when so many people spend the years beforehand telling everyone in the world that your country has no business being at war, that your president's a liar, that we should just apologize for being American, what do you expect to happen? It doesn't matter whether you think these things are true or not, it colors your perception, and it colors the perception of the rest of the world. Yes, there are a lot of things wrong in this country right now. I don't get political on my blog because there are so many others who do it better, so I'm not going to go into what I think. But if the prevailing opinion, as seen in the press, is that we are just an awful, awful country, it's no wonder the Olympians don't care.

It's no wonder they've practically distanced themselves from their country. It's no wonder at all that they're much more concerned about their own images than about winning for the US, for national pride, for patriotism. Even after Sasha Cohen's brilliant skate the other night, the chants of "USA!" didn't start for a full minute or more, almost like an afterthought.

Come on, people! A country is like a marriage. We may not always get along. We may have completely opposite opinions about a lot of things. But when people on the outside look in, they should see us united, a team. They should know we love each other. I don't see why that's so hard.

What do you think?