evidence: Bertrand Russell was riding his bicycle one day when he realized that he didn’t love his wife anymore. I always found this story bizarre and unbelievable until a similar thing happened to me. I was reading the New York Times on Monday morning, June 28, when I suddenly realized that one of my love affairs was over. I am referring not to a personal relationship but to my love of the United States of America. At an exact moment in time, I realized that I no longer was a patriot. Webster’s defines a patriot as a person who loves and loyally or zealously supports his own country, which implies that there are two distinct components of patriotism, a feeling of love as well as an active expression of that devotion. Most Americans, even critics of the government, say that they are patriotic, but there are differences of opinion about how patriotism should be expressed. Some argue that patriotism involves obeying the law of the land as a minimum requirement and that its highest form is risking one’s life for one’s country, while others claim that civil disobedience can be an authentic form of patriotic action.