Patriotism

My niece wrote this, and I thought it was very insightful, and wanted to share it hear:-) She makes a lot of sense:-)

Patriotism--Love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it.-

Word Web

What do you think of when you hear patriotism? Maybe you think of people throughout history that loved America; people like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe you have a patriotic hero from history that not everyone has heard of, but who loved their country, literally, to death. Perhaps it is someone that's lived during your lifetime, like Ronald Reagan. Have you ever looked around, though, and seen many people showing patriotism today? It's getting more rare, folks. Patriotism is disappearing. One of the reasons patriotism is disappearing is because... well, let's just put it this way: America's getting worse. What do I mean by that? It seems like crimes are increasing and getting worse, people don't care about laws, and most importantly, people don't care about each other, which is probably the root cause for not caring about laws. Of course, there are some laws, such as abortion, that people don't agree with, and for a good reason. When you just live your life, not caring about others or what you do, that's going to start impacting people everywhere you go. If you look back to WWI and WWII, people did care about others, they worked like crazy to show it and make a difference. Today, people are starting to get lazy; starting to take America for granted. Back when America was a bunch of people with goals, hard work, and love for her and her people, we were a great country. What can you do? Stop taking America for granted, work hard and show you care.Another reason patriotism is disappearing is because kids aren't taught to respect their country in school, so if they're parents don't teach them, they're not going to care at all. Kids, even though they might have told you that it was in school, freedom is not burning the flag to protest.A third reason is because we are forgetting God. I don't care what you say, our nation was build on Biblical ideas and principles. I once heard a quote by a Frenchman who came to America in the 18th century, wondering why our democracy worked so much better than France's. He basically said, "America works because it is good". America was founded on Christian principles and should continue to be. Now there are those people out there that try and convince you that America shouldn't be Christian because of "The separation of church and state." "You know guys, it says in the first amendment of the Constitution..." Guess what? The first amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." OK, now tell me where it says that the government can't have Christian based ideas. Tell me where it says that we can't have anything that mentions God in public schools. Oh no, it doesn't! America is somewhat mixed up in a way, people are becoming lazy and uncaring. They are forgetting what America is and what it stands for. But deep down inside, I think everyone still has a little bit of patriotism, and they just need to find it and show it to the world. Not just when something bad happens to bring us all together, do it now. Don't say America is great, show that America is great. It's not great because we say so, it's great because we do so. It's the people and their freedom, not the government, not the powerful military, it's the people.