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PATRIOTS: Let’s prove it

| August 6, 2021 1:00 AM

While the standard dictionary definition of patriotism reads “love of one’s country,” philosophers (beginning with Stephen Nathanson) have added flesh to that definition by saying it involves:

Special affection for one’s own country.

A sense of person identification with the country.

Special concern for the well-being of the country.

Willingness to sacrifice to promote the country’s good.

That last item deserves some special attention this year. For those of us who consider ourselves patriots, let’s ask ourselves whether we are willing to make a sacrifice for the good of our country.

How big a sacrifice? Would we be willing to get a vaccine shot since enough of us getting one would mean that the country could be rid of the virus sooner? That fewer fellow Americans would get sick? That new variants (that might not be controlled by existing vaccines) wouldn’t have a place to form?

If not, if that’s too great a sacrifice of our personal freedom, can we really consider ourselves patriots? I wonder.

DEB FISHER

Coeur d’Alene