by Jamelah Zidan

	This week’s contributor, Jamelah Zidan, attends Peekskill High School.

I am tired of being called unpatriotic. This may not be the biggest insult ever, but after you’ve heard it in various forms, (Go back to your country!! If you love America so much, why don’t you support our president?) and seeing people claim patriotism just because they have attached a flag to every item they own (the house, the car, bikinis?? Come on!!), you start to wonder, what the heck is patriotism? Is it nonsense? Is it worth my time?

First, I must figure out which countries I’m allowed to be loyal to. I can’t just choose a country and say, well, I’m loyal to Canada because they play good hockey. It has quite a lot to do with where you were born, and where your parents are from. I’m the daughter of immigrants. Both my mother and father were born and grew up in the Middle East. I was born in the Bronx. So what does that make me?

A Palestinian-American. Yes, I can be loyal to two totally different places. I am actually a complex human being and can be passionate about more than one thing. I can love the Palestinian and American cultures all the same.

But about my American patriotism. I will never forget, as long as I live, that I received a free education from America. This doesn’t happen everywhere. My cousins live outside the States. They pay for elementary school. And there is no such thing as pre-k, or kindergarten. I will not forget that people are allowed to elect who runs the government. It doesn’t happen everywhere. I will never forget the police, who are, for the most part, there to help us and are successful in doing so.

I have the right to carry a sign saying, “NO MORE BLOOD FOR OIL,” while marching down 42nd Street. I have the right to scream, yell, print, and video tape my dislike, hatred, or disagreement with the American government. Oh…I’ve stepped on some toes. Not patriotic you say?

Apparently patriotism is national pride: Pride in or devotion to the country somebody was born in or is a citizen of. I show my pride with every chant of protest, with every sarcastic barb I write, with every criticism I have ever made about the government. I know full well the gifts I have been given since I was born here. I’m not going to let anyone take them away from me, especially those who have been put in power by the people. Here’s what I think is unpatriotic.

Unpatriotic is not knowing who your governor is. Or how many Supreme Court justices there are. Or what the basic tenets of American government are. When you can’t remember the last time you went to vote. I dare you to go online and take a citizenship test. If you can’t pass it, you need to consider the rights you have, and the responsibility you have, as a citizen. The founding fathers created this nation with protest, with questions, with dissent. We have a duty to continue the tradition.