He loves his country best who strives to make it best. ~Robert G. Ingersoll

He can trace his old military unit’s lineage back to the Revolutionary War and his personal lineage to 1630 with names like Underhill, De Revier, Goetschius, and Van Tassel – ministers, soldiers, upstarts, and firebrands.

He’s termed brilliant by his contemporaries and is the “institutional memory” of his adopted city and state. But for an accident of bad timing, he’d carry the term “native Delawarean”. Who knew the boy in the sailor suit would take such unpopular paths to make his corner of the world a better place?

He was a citizen soldier who would take us to watch his artillery battery practice. We would sit in some of the classes he taught for Officer Candidates. And we watched while he finished packing a duffel bag one night in anticipation of the world ending because of a place called Cuba. He explained all this as something that had to be done, not because of the people, but because of the leaders. We were never to feel ill will to the people. He told me in a letter that somewhere in Russia another little girl’s father was doing the same thing for the same reason. I was to remember the Russian girl and not be scared.

Patriots are away from home a lot. They miss birthdays, broken bones, measles, and tonsils.

In the days before computers, they’d call once a month for five minutes. Five minutes because there was always a line at the phone. The kids would get 30 seconds each. I don’t know what bigger families did.

A patriot wants, above all, peace so he wore his uniform for 30 years and belonged to Pacem in Terris. He sees no conflict in belonging to both the ACLU and the NRA – although the NRA’s lobbying tactics are starting to aggravate him. He believed that the institution of freedom for all was more than words so he went to Montgomery, Alabama, and if we suffered for it (and we did), it was for the greater good.

He’s a man who will tell you he was named to an arts committee as the philistine representative, but he made money as a photographer and commissioned paintings for his own collection. He sings along to the standards only with encouragement and has learned to enjoy Matt Shipp’s style of jazz. He’s considered a poet because he wrote the last verse to a rather unsingable state song. (Aren’t they all?)

He’s a Son of the American Revolution who has a son serving and a grandson who will be commissioned upon graduation. The next generation of his family looks like the salad bowl of America. It’s as it should be. That was the point of the battle. They, too, will do things that incur the scorn and wrath of neighbors, friends, and, sometimes, family. It can’t be helped. It’s in the blood and born in the soul.

“The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.” George McGovern

As we say in my family “It’s what we do.”

–Mary Beth Devine, Contributor

Edith Shain- with the unknown sailor on V-Day

Editor's Note: Who is your favorite patriot?

Mine is this unknown American sailor, forever etched in our minds, as he kisses the most beautiful woman he sees upon returning to America on V Day

Please leave a comment, no matter what your politics, to honor thebrave men and women are sent into harm's way because they take pride in their country. There is no draw or prize, Say what's in your heart for YOUR Country no matter wehre you live.