Authors Note- For the Veteran's Essay this year the prompt was "Does Patriotism Still Matter?" I was going for the idea of, all of the privileges we have from it, and that even if we can't repay someone their life, we can honor the others that are still here. This is my essay response to it.
The flag waving hello back to you. Flying high in the sky, snapping loudly sometimes, to remind us again it’s still there. Looking up at it before a sporting event, always in the spot light, never in the dark, knowing we are safe to fight through our game, while someone else fights in theirs. Seeing through the white stars of purity, to the blue sometimes said to stand for patriotism. The national anthem is played before every game, what if one game it wasn’t? It wouldn’t be right. The game might still go on, but everyone would know that something was wrong.
Before every sporting event, we play the national anthem, look up to the flag waving in the sky and put our hand over our heart in honor. This honor is patriotism. At the beginning of every school day, we say the pledge of allegiance in respect. This respect is patriotism. While we are at school, or at a game, there are people off fighting for us. We need to appreciate this more, our freedoms. The least we can do is honor them, and show respect for them.
Patriotism, can come in different ways. The way we honor it, can also come in different ways. Everyone always wants to be thanked for what they did. When something is sacrificed, it shouldn’t go unnoticed. If someone does you a favor, you thank them or repay them. We can’t repay the people that have lost their lives for us, or what they have gone through, but we can help, by at least thanking them.
Imagine a world without love for our country. Imagine a world without heroes saving our country. Imagine a world without loyalty towards our country. Now imagine where we would live if this was true. Without, we would all be separate, there would be no united in The United States of America. It is one of the most important principles of a country. If patriotism didn’t matter, what would?
I enjoyed reading this piece a lot. Your narrative set the scene perfectly and the repetition in your conclusion helped prove your point. In the body paragraphs the way you said how we could never repay the people who have lost their lives is definitely true and we need to remember that every time we sing the national anthem or recite the pledge of allegiance. The least we can do to honor our troops is to say thank you and you proved that point very well.
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