For the Fourth of July, I wanted a good T-shirt. Unironic patriotism, and preferably not just a flag. I couldn’t find anything. I could find dozens of “Day Drinkin’ Like Abe Lincoln” type shirts, but something that actually celebrated aspirational patriotism — the desire for a better country, to honor all the ways people serve and strive — nope.

Patriotism’s been weaponized, turned into a club by those who hold a very narrow definition of it. Let’s reclaim it. Those who fought for suffrage, the abolition of slavery, for unions, all of these people were vilified for being the most patriotic among us by refusing to settle for a lesser nation. In our best moments, as a country we realize this.

Patriotism is not static. In the face of institutional — constitutional — slavery, Lincoln found in the Declaration of Independence support for all people, regardless of race, being endowed with inalienable rights, taking the inspiration of freedom that slave-owning Founding Fathers had and using it to make the progress they couldn’t see.

We are supported in our struggle today by everyone in our history who took action for what they believed we could become, by everyone who works for something better today, and we know that those who take the torch next will reinterpret and expand patriotism as they move us in directions we might only guess at.

That’s the just patriotism I believe in.