The sign on the door of the crooked little shack said 'He mans women haters club', but the shack was empty...
The sign on the door said 'he mans women haters club' but the shack was empty...was the unoccupied shanty still a club or was it just a place?
The sign over the front door said 'the Smith Family' but no one was home at the time...was the empty building a family, or was it just a house?
In both cases we have a situation where of necessity, for a place to actually be what it is called, it requires the presence of people.
The sign on the iconic statue says 'The United States of America' and as with the previous examples, the lives of its residents are what makes it more than just a place.
pa-tri-ot a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country
trea-son a violation of allegiance to ones' state
If you follow my line of reasoning, you might conclude that for one to love his country he must love its people...and the extent of inclusiveness determines the extent of patriotism.
There are parasitic forces afoot in our lives, forces that would have me hate gays, hate minorities, hate liberals, hate the poor, until I run out of people to love. How can I be a patriot when I consider so much of my country my enemy?
If treason is a violation of allegiance to ones' state, how much worse a crime is it to encourage said violation in others? To use mein kampf for a playbook on how to use fear, prejudice, hatred and deception to corrupt...from teaparty Brownshirts to the birther Big Lie, the propaganda machine spews its deadly treasonous spiritual poison into the hearts and minds of our country, our people, the collective heartbeat of the nation.
Anyone can wrap themselves in a flag and stamp the word patriot on their life, but unless their life is suffused with love for their fellow Americans...all of their fellow Americans...their patriotism is less than lipstick on a pig.