First of all: as Rat Man wrote, let this topic be respectful and keep it on an adult level.
That said, please remember that English is not my mother language, and you may have the feeling that I'm writing in a polemic or quarreling tone. This is not, the following are just my ideas and I have absolutely no intention to quarrel with anybody (at least not on a frivolous matter such as being patriotic or not)
And now my ideas...
I am not a patriot, for a very simple reason: I was born in Italy just by chance.
Mixing up
being patriotic and nationalist, I consider my life much more valuable than any Nation, State or Country I could live in. This because I can't see any good reason for the existance of borders and boundaries.
I also believe that concepts like welfare, medical system, public education and so on are transient too.
I consider myself citizen of the world (understood as a group of people willing to cooperate and work toghether) rather than being merely an Italian, for the idea that I belong to an Italian ensemble is somehow limiting.
More anarchically, I've a strong faith on people's humaneness, which is, I believe, able to rule our lives much better than the adoption of laws and borders.
That said, I love to live in this place, which has been called, during various times, "Ombro", "Regio VI Picena", "Italia", "Esarcato", "Pentapoli", "Marca Anconitana", "Stato della Chiesa", and then "Italia" again.
I love most of the people that surround me, I love the places, I love the fact that we're the result of a "melting pot" (which still happens everyday). I love to live in a place which gave the world some of its most important thinkers and art. I love the fact that our medical system is free and our school is, too.
But I don't feel any property right on these things, and I don't fear anybody who would destroy such a system. Why destroy something that works so well?
That said, I'm not going to join the Italian Army in any war, as long as our politician's sons remain at home, as they have always done during the last 150 years. Because I'm not cannon fodder and there're higher reasons I'd die for, rather than the concept of "Italian nation": my family, my freedom, my house, the fact that we all have the same rights, duties and freedoms.
Greetings,
Mauro.