So I am sitting in my history class as we were discussing the American Revolution and all of a sudden I became infuriated. Not furious with the Revolution, but incensed with our country that we live in today. One of the greatest parts of the Revolution was the rise of the American Patriot. I became so mad, because a true Patriot no longer exists at this time, but the idea of a Patriot is not that far from returning.

Patriots have faith in what they believe in and they constantly strive to change the world that surrounds them in a way to better not just themselves, but everyone else. This just doesn’t exist anymore because greed, hatred, and the lack of ability to accept, clouds the minds of citizens making them the enemy which we had some 233 years ago. Patriot shouldn’t even be a valid word at this time. Patriotism is at a low (though I am sure everyone will disagree), because we as a “Union” have forgotten what it is like to think like one and achieve goals as one. Everyone strives to be better than the next and I hate to say it folks, there is no “I” in team. Words like patriarch and patriotism don’t exist because the common ideology of a Patriot unfortunately is absent from American culture.

I do not know if I believe in a Third Party Movement, which is to be personally discussed at a later time, but if one is to exist and actually move forward; revitalize the Patriot and move forward as one to change the world, not a bunch of I’s trying to accomplish everything. Cohesive units are key, let the Third Party be a unit of Patriotism not of greed, power, and constant insubordination.

-Shawn Driggers

Grand Valley State University