Acts of Patriotism

Author's Note: I wrote this essay for the Veteran's Essay Competition. I thought that it was a good idea to introduce that patriotism is not only in the military but also in other occupations and acts. I think that it is important that we see that fighting is not the only way to be patriotic. Well, enjoy.

Patriotism is not fear; we do not cower away when we are attacked; it is not hate; we do not retaliate on the innocent; and it is not evil; our actions do not have immoral thoughts behind them; but it is love. It is such strong love and passion for a country and its people that soldiers are willing to put their lives on the line. When they sign up, they are signing a contract that says they could possibly die for their country and, even under those circumstances, they still sign their name. They leave their family and their friends so they can protect them, so they can make sure no one will ever hurt them. Patriotism is everything because we would have nothing if those people didn’t sign their names.

Patriotism, our love for our country, can be shown through many actions and ideas other than fighting. Actions like teaching and paying our taxes are considered patriotic acts. Teachers choose to become the role models and educators for the children of our country and they should be thanked because we wouldn’t have a country if we didn’t have education. These people do something important and difficult in their lives, they show us they care enough to make a difference and we should be grateful for that.

Teaching may be one alternative way to show patriotism but another important way is paying taxes. Paying your taxes is very important because it is very easy to get away with not paying them, but those people that do pay their taxes are only making our country a better place to live. When we pay our taxes we are paying for all the extra expenses our country has, like the military, health-care benefits, interest on the national debt and Social Security. If everyone in the country paid their taxes then our country would be even more advanced than it is now but we should just be grateful that a majority of our population does pay their taxes.

Our strong love for our country is our strong acts of patriotism. We can show people how important patriotism is by doing all these things and showing them the positive results we would get. The future of our country depends on our actions today whether it is in teaching, military or paying taxes; just doing these things can only make our home a better place. If those people don’t keep showing us they care, our country will keep cascading down onto itself and it will take even harder and more determined work to dig us back up. If we keep remembering that patriotism does not mean we fear and cower away from our enemies and that we don’t do these things from hate but that we appreciate and cherish what we have and that we will do anything for our country then we will truly be the best country we can be.