At times like these, it's difficult for most people to be truly patriotic.

We've seen American flags tied to car antennas, affixed to bumpers, pinned on shirts, displayed on front porches, unfurled at sporting events and raised on flag poles to declare our allegiance to our nation.

While I agree that the flag is an important symbol, I believe true patriotism is a much bigger challenge than that.

It's easy to display an American flag. It's easy to lay your hand over your heart and say the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem. It's easy to say that we have the best country in the world. It's easy to say that we support the president. It's easy to say that the government should do whatever is necessary to root out terrorism.

But is that really patriotism?

It's easy to watch the images on TV and wish ill on the people who committed these acts of terrorism. It's easy to send donations to relief funds to help the victims. It's easy to nod our heads in agreement when threats are issued against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. It's easy to say, "United we stand" and "God bless America."

But is that really patriotism?

For many people, patriotism means that you never say a harsh word about our country, especially in a time of crisis and especially if that criticism is about our foreign policy. For some, patriotism means giving unflagging support to our military, regardless of whether we agree or disagree with their current mission. For some, patriotism means that we put aside our differences and cancel our debates so we can show our enemy a united front.

But is that really patriotism?

I'm a patriotic American. I love this country, and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world. That love compels me to guard jealously the only thing that there is to be patriotic about - the U.S. Constitution. People tend to get wrapped up in the flag at times like these, but every country has a flag. How many have a constitution?

The United States is the greatest nation because individual citizens here have the freedom to think, to act, to travel and to create. We have freedoms of speech, press, dissent and religion. We're guaranteed speedy and public trials, insulated against self-incrimination and unreasonable searches, and protected, by Supreme Court review, from legislatures that seek to violate those rights.

The Constitution should be the focus of our patriotism, because everything else is just window dressing.

But it's hard for people to be patriotic at a time like this. In our pain, anger and search for justice, we get caught up in the symbols of patriotism rather than the substance. We wave our flags at the terrorists and scream, "You've failed! We're still standing, still proud, still united, still Americans!"

Which is true. But while we're waving our flags, our legislators are chipping away at the document that makes us great. They're expanding wiretapping authority, extending the time that people can be held without being charged with a crime, and signing over billions of dollars with carte blanche spending authority.

While we're proving with our symbols that the terrorists don't scare us, our government is leaning toward a guilty-until-proven-innocent model of profiling, hoping to secretly record the meetings of certain religious groups and pushing for wide-spread use of surveillance cameras coupled with face recognition software so that computers literally could know where any of us is at a particular moment.

If we're really committed in keeping terrorists from stealing our freedoms, then we must be true patriots to our Constitution. But in times like these, it's difficult for people to be patriotic. It's much easier to wave a flag.