American Patriotism Poem – by Emily Orta

Freedom isn’t Just A Word, it’s a Sacrifice

I was raised to stand when the anthem played

Hand over heart, eyes on the flag

Not out of habit but out of honor

Because I knew what it meant to live in a place where freedom wasn’t just a word, but a sacrifice

America was never promised easy; she was promised free

And freedom has never been cheap

It’s been bought in battlefields’ silence and folded flags, in tears on tarmacs, and names etched in stone

This country is stitched together with stories of people who kept showing up even when it got hard, farmers, soldiers, mothers working two jobs, kids who believe they could be anything, because here you still can

We are small towns and big cities, steel mills and skyscrapers

Languages that sound different, but still say, this is home

And no, we’re not perfect, we never have been, but perfection was never the goal, progress was, unity even in the tension

Freedom even in the mess, somewhere along the way we started forgetting, started tearing down what generations before us gave everything to build

We argue louder than we listen

We cancel quicker than we understand

We treat patriotism like it’s a problem when it’s the very reason we get to speak at all

This isn’t about politics

This is about principle

About remembering that laws matter, that order matters

That borders mean something

That a country that stands for nothing will fall for anything

But yet we still rise, every time, because when the world shakes we don’t run, we rebuild

That’s the America I know

The one that opens its arms, but doesn’t forget what it holds up

The one that bends but does not break

So, no, I won’t apologize for being proud, for believing in the flag and what it stands for

For choosing country over chaos, honor over noise, hope over fear

Because I’ve seen what this country can be when we stop fighting each other and start fighting for one another

“We the People” still means all of us, but only if we act like it

So I’ll keep standing even if I’m standing alone

Because America wasn’t just built on power, she was built on resolve, and this is the country that I still believe in —

God bless America