An Afghanistan veteran has been running 15 miles a day for a year while wearing the iconic red Make America Great Again (MAGA) cap because, he said, “Showing support for the president and being patriotic should be a given in our country.”

Elliot Timms is a Missouri native who spent two tours in Afghanistan. On July 4, 2017, he said that his frustration with our national division inspired him to put on his MAGA cap and take up the flag as a reminder.

“When people see me running across the landscape with the American flag, perhaps it will cause them to pause for a moment and consider the meaning, value and importance of that flag and [what] our country represents,” he said.

For Timms, who has run through Kansas City and Washington, DC — and who plans to head to Alaska for the same reason — the statement is also a personal one. “For me, the American flag has always been a unifier, not a divider,” he said. “This display of patriotism is just a small act of humility, hardship and sacrifice to express my commitment and devotion to love of country. It’s my way of showing the entire country what America, and being an American, means to me.”

Timms hopes to counteract the doomsayers in our national conversation with a show of good old-fashioned national pride: “I’m countering voices of negativity and defeatism in our country with a more uplifting, proud, and powerful gesture of patriotism, because those negative voices don’t speak for all of America.”