Anyone who was worried that Monday's Pioneer Park anti-war protest would embarrass either the visiting Veterans of Foreign Wars or their special guest, President Bush, can relax. For all the president was able to see or hear of the contrarian event, the protest may as well have been on Mars.

The only worrisome aspect of the well-attended protest, which doubtless drew both more supporters and more ire once it became known that Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was among its backers, was the suggestion heard here and there that there is something wrong with protesting a president, a war or a president's policy toward a war.

There isn't. And, as long as this is the kind of nation that was worth the sacrifice of VFW members, there won't be.

Patriotism does not mean blind loyalty to whoever happens to be in power at the moment. Support for the troops does not mean uncritical support for the mission they have been given. Not in a democracy.

Patriotism means people taking their responsibility as citizens seriously, looking at the facts, searching their hearts and deciding what course their nation should follow. Those who thoughtfully support the president and his policies, and say so, are being no more or less patriotic than those who oppose him, and say so.

Support for the troops means taking responsibility for what is happening to them by insisting that they receive the best leadership, the best equipment and weaponry, the best medical care and, perhaps, a rapid end to a war that, in many patriotic minds, was ill-conceived and now risks becoming a prolonged and fruitless death trap.

The need for this true form of patriotism is not less important in time of war. It is more important.

Because the actual bleeding and dying is being done by a small fraction of the population, and because the rest of us are not being asked to sacrifice in any way, too many of us may be lulled into a sense that the war doesn't matter to us.

But a war fought in our name, paid for by our taxes (or, more precisely these days, our national debt), endangering the lives of our fellow citizens, if not our near and dear, is the very thing that should move Americans away from apathy and toward some level of involvement.

Mayor Anderson was correct to speak out for the right as he sees it. Citizenship in a free society does not just allow it. It demands it.