To the editor:

Getting back to basic definitions always helps sort out controversies. An election year during a war is probably the best possible time to think about what patriotism means.

A working definition is that patriotism means love of one’s country. Let’s note too that love is an act, not just how you feel; in this case, the act of doing what’s best for one’s country, even at your own expense.

Bumper-stickers on the SUV, flags in the front yard, and chanting “We’re Number One!!,” are fine ways to show your support for this year’s home-team, but they’re not patriotism. In fact, the more those gestures are intended to show your patriotism, the less they qualify as the real thing; patriotism is emphatically not about yourself.

Parties, politicians and policies are measured the same way. Those that do what’s best for the country, even at their own expense, are patriotic. Those who try to jigger the benchmark in their own favor are emphatically not.

If we’re going to think or talk about patriotism, the only sound first step is a basic definition. Without that, cheap and shallow boosterism looks like the real article. Worse, politicians of all stripes are waiting at the door with their varying and self-serving definitions of patriotism for anybody who doesn’t have one.

Steve Hicks,

Lawrence