“Patriotism means to stand by the country.”

 

The Fourth of July is always a special day in my town. It’s a good time to celebrate our country. A block from where I live, in the City Park, sixty thousand plus will gather to picnic, listen to music, and eat from food trucks offering everything from burgers and hotdogs to pizza and clam chowder. Across the street, fireworks will be released to light the sky at 10 o’clock, while the City Symphony plays patriotic music in the park. Very special, and replicated across this great land.

 

It’s a good day to remind ourselves of what some presidents, present and past, have said. I’m including a few of these, plus quotes from two of my favorite writers, an American and an Englishman.

 

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“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

 

 

“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15.”

~ Ronald Reagan

 

 

“Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.”

~ George Washington

 

 

“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”

~ Barack Obama

 

 

“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

~ Harry S. Truman

 

 

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American … There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

 

 

“My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

 

 

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

~ John F. Kennedy

 

 

“The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American.”

~ Thomas Jefferson

 

 

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”

~ George Washington

 

 

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.”

~ Mark Twain

 

 

“‘My country, right or wrong,’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’”

~ G.K. Chesterton, The Defendant

 

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May God bless you, good friend, wherever in the world you may be reading this.

 

And may God bless the United States of America.