Several staffers of The News Courier recently have had reason to rethink our patriotism. Sure, we’ve long considered ourselves patriotic, but do we practice patriotism?

Some veterans from various wars we’ve talked with lately have bemoaned the fact that Americans no longer see the flag for what it really means.

It is not merely a garden decoration, they said.

It is not only a car sticker or a pin on a blouse.

One of our staffers recently attended, as part of a burial detail, the funeral of a deceased local veteran. She learned how even many veterans have come to take the service of their fellow soldiers for granted, but how a steadfast handful remain faithful and true — just like the flag they served under.

As some of the editorial board members attended a Flag Day ceremony at Athens State University and learned the history of Old Glory, it became more evident that many of us do take this important symbol for granted.

In Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner,” the line about our flag’s survival through the battle gives chills: “And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,_ gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there ...”

And then when members of our own National Guard unit, the 203rd Military Police Battalion, pulled away from the armory on Father’s Day, with family members in tears, it became impossible to ignore any longer the meaning of the 13 stars and stripes and the 50 stars on the field of blue.

As the red, white and blue rockets of this July Fourth holiday fade, please do not take this flag for granted.

In the words of a song by Shannon Blackburn Gray: “Stand up for America. She stands for you and me.”