There is no quicker method, unscientific as it may be, to gauge the civic spirit of Baltimore than to listen to the national anthem.

If you hear a loud, crisp “O!” three-quarters of the way through, that’s how you know we’re doing all right.

At a recent Orioles game, my girlfriend — a California native who has enthusiastically embraced our regional traditions — whispered excitedly in my ear as the anthem began, “I’ll be ready this time.” As the singer rounded into the last couplet, I jolted in surprise, then smiled with a growing pride, as my partner belted a resounding “O!” to add to the swelling chorus at the start of the line, O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave?

That’s the beauty of the Baltimore “O!” It doesn’t matter where you’re from or even where you live now. It doesn’t even alter any of the original lyrics, which Francis Scott Key penned at a spot in the harbor that borders our fair city.

It’s about communal recognition — that you’re here for Baltimore. That you’re here for Maryland. That you have a love for this community and state that simply makes you want to shout out loud, in unison with an army of strangers who feel the same way.

To me, that’s inspiring and representative of the kind of place I want to live in. But not to Matt from Herndon.

In a letter to The Washington Post, Matt (identifying himself as a former assistant principal and taking a matching patronizing administrative tone) criticized the Baltimore “O!” as unpatriotic.

Wrote Matt, who said he was dismayed by the chant when the Orioles visited the Nationals last month: “It really rubbed me raw to hear the ‘O!’ in our nation’s capital. What’s more, I think Orioles fans know it’s disrespectful, too.”

Sorry, Matt, I think your fellow fans who so rattled you might have been under the impression they were attending a baseball game — not a state dinner. Maybe the hot dogs and the beer for sale should have been a clue.

It would be annoying enough if Matt were simply content to chastise Baltimoreans for this tradition, but he also goes on to compare us to students at his former high school who changed the lyrics from “home of the brave” to “home of the Chargers.” Once he spoke with them “like the responsible young adults they were,” the students courageously departed from their old tradition.

How does that example apply here? Nobody’s changing lyrics, Matt. The “O” is already there.

Departing from the flawed rhetorical logic, the deeper issue I have with the lecture is that I’m not sure Matt from Herndon lives in the America that I live in. If Matt looked around and took stock, he might notice that the “collective ‘we’” (as he puts it), is severely fractured thanks to the highest powers in the land.

The president of the United States — when he’s not accepting lavish gifts from foreign powers — actively lashes out at cities like, and including, Baltimore. His administration is laying off thousands of government and government-adjacent workers who live in Maryland, adding chaos to the state’s economic future. He is defying orders from the Supreme Court to return a Marylander from a Salvadoran prison, using whatever convenient (and often untrue) justification that leaps to mind.

But no — the problem Matt from Herndon sees with America is Baltimore fans traveled to Washington’s ballpark and shouted “O!” during the anthem, which just over the line in Maryland actually serves the very function he is so concerned about. It’s the lyric where Baltimoreans, Marylanders and Orioles fans sprinkled across the country feel true solidarity and, perhaps shockingly to Matt, true patriotism.

True patriotism is a love of one’s country — and countrymen — above oneself. And, while Baltimore and Maryland are under siege from this administration, I’ll be damned if I don’t care about the people in the stands at Camden Yards who stream in from all parts of the city and its surrounding counties. We sing the “O!” with our moms, dads, friends, lovers, ex-lovers, roommates, landlords and even the people we don’t see eye to eye with. If that’s not patriotism, what is?

There should be room for the reflective, solemn kind of patriotism that gives space for the sacrifice others (including our military) have made for us, but also the lively, vivacious kind that says, We’re here, we’re proud of the place we live, and we want it to thrive.

Frankly, it’s the kind of patriotism we could use more of in an era when countrymen are turning on each other, demonizing cities like Baltimore as cheap political currency. Pardon us for the chip on our shoulder, but we’re from Baltimore — that’s why.

If Matt from Herndon thinks the “O!” is not meaningful in our lowest moments, he should have been at Camden Yards in March 2024 after the Key Bridge collapsed. A lot of us needed to hear the roar of the Baltimore “O!” that day, when it was not just a rowdy tradition but a resilient affirmation that we were going to pull through a collective trauma.

So no, Matt, nobody wants to be lectured on the Baltimore “O!” Especially now. You’re welcome to your opinion, but if you’re looking for people to scold about patriotism, maybe look toward the White House.

The “O!” is a Baltimore thing. It’s a Maryland thing. It’s about a shared identity and community that we’re all rooting for, which is patriotic in and of itself. You’ll know we’re feeling good when you hear how loud it gets when we pull together for one collective syllable every time we get together and sing.

If someone from Virginia doesn’t get it, we’ll live with that. Hope that’s OoooooK with you.