OPINION | BRENDA LOOPER: Love of country

With Independence Day upon us, celebrating 248 years as a nation, my thoughts turn, as they often do, to the meaning of patriotism.

When I speak of patriotism, I don't mean what it's been bastardized into by political parties, essentially to mean, first and foremost, a love of party. It is simply, as Merriam-Webster defines it, "love for or devotion to one's country."

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that Stephen Nathanson, in a 1993 book-length treatise on the subject, "defines patriotism as involving: special affection for one's own country; a sense of personal identification with the country; special concern for the well-being of the country; willingness to sacrifice to promote the country's good." That can certainly include, says Stanford, both pride in a country's merits and shame for its acknowledged lapses or crimes.

So