Baltimore Sun, August 26, 2008:

While Maryland continues to be ranked as the richest state in the nation, according to estimates released by the U.S. census Tuesday, the state's poverty rate showed a slight increase.

In the Baltimore region, the increase in the rate of poverty was great enough to be statistically significant only in Harford County, according to state demographers.

If anybody suggests that you should have a "Happy Memorial Day," ask him or her what's so happy about dead U.S. soldiers. If a southerner wishes it to you, tell him or her that you do not find the historical reality of Confederate unlawful combatants shooting U.S. soldiers in the face and killing them "happy." Then ask him or her what should happen to people who kill U.S. soldiers. My answer: they should not get parks, highways, schools, colleges, etc., named in their honor, unless we are ready to make way for "Tariq Aziz Boulevard" in Cleveland and "Mullah Muhammed Omar Junior High" in Biloxi.

Patriotism means that you want your country to thrive, to prosper, to do well and be good. As a republic, we are great when we do good, more so than when we "do well." I would commend all proud Americans, regardless of personal identity, politics or philosophy, to embrace patriotism not as the last refuge of the scoundrel but as the first love of the optimist who wishes his country to live well.