I went to the park for the 4th of July Philharmonic performance and soon realized I was in the midst of a nationalistic rally. The audience all stood up for God Bless America, God Bless the USA as well as the national anthem.
I was the only one in my group that only stood up for the national anthem. One of my very best friends said you may not feel patriotic but when I see what's happening in my parents country of Hungary I really appreciate the USA. I tried to gently tell her that I really did love my country but I felt nationalism was part of what was happening in Hungary and I could see it rising in America as well. In fact I felt that standing up for these other songs actually watered down the significance of standing for our national anthem. Of course all the God bless stuff was offensive to me.

She's a good Catholic that's accepted my atheism for many years so there were no more comments.