I enjoyed your article.  Not standing up for the national anthem?  Wow, you have guts.  I'm an Obama supporter myself.  He has guts too because he put so much trust in people's intelligence here in the US even though many of us voted W in for the second time.

The only time patriotism is a dirty word is when people say they're patriotic yet all they ever did was to put a bumper sticker/ribbon on their car. 

Patriotism means more than being proud of your country.  It's making it better.  That way you have something tangible to be proud of.