Not a bad reflection.

Patriotism is a virtue, a strength, love for one's country.

Some on the right have 'shallowed' its meaning; most on the left simply demean even the idea of patriotism. 

It's rooted in the 4th Commandment, as the CCC tell us.   It's an extension of love for our parents. 

There is no love without sacrifice.  If you haven't sacrificed well for your country, you cannot love it.

Sacrifice doesn't mean military service, or combat service; it can certainly mean this.

But sacrifice can also mean raising one's children very well so that they learn what it means to love (sacrifice, self-denial, selflessness, constancy & cheerfulness of gift of self). 

So that the children learn how to be "big minded, good hearted, and strong living" (generous, constructive-minded, not fragile sorts focused on the self). 

We have generations of people who haven't learned how to love in this most Christian way, and who have raised whole families who have no idea what I am saying.