Here's to the young people, paintbrushes in hand, who are ready to right the American ship

I stood atop the small hill by the shore of the Mousam River and aimed my phone to take a picture of the American flag painted on the rocks across the water.

I was at Holdsworth Park in Springvale. I had taken pictures of this painted flag before, usually on the Fourth of July, when I would go there to read a bit in my folding chair and drink an iced coffee before heading to the parade later that morning.

On this occasion, it was the morning of Sept. 11, earlier this month. I was there for the same old reason – reading and coffee – and I thought that taking a photo of the flag and posting it on one of the Sanford-themed Facebook pages would make a fitting remembrance of that awful day in our nation’s history, 21 years ago.

As usual, the flag did not appear on my phone as large and as vivid in its colors as it did to my very own eyes. I decided to head down the hill to the waterline to get a closer shot.

I had not wanted to do that at first because there was a young couple there, sitting on a blanket and enjoying snacks, and I did not want to bother them. But then I figured, why not?

Why not, indeed. They were a pleasant pair, the two of them. I told them I just wanted to snap a quick pic of the flag, with it being Sept. 11 and all, and added I’d be on my way afterward. They told me I was not interrupting them at all.

I aimed my phone and took the shot. The flag still looked farther away than it was, and its colors still did not seem as vivid, but hey. The photo accompanies this column, so I’ll let you be the judge. I really wanted to capture the reflection of the flag in the water.

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Before I headed back up the hill, the couple commented on how much they liked the flag and how hard the people who painted it had worked on it. The young woman said something that has stayed with me.

“The paint is faded,” she said. “I think it should be up to my generation to repaint it.”

It was so nice to hear. Maybe it’s just me, but you do not hear too many young people today speak with pride and love and affection for our country. I think that’s unfortunate, but if I try to put myself in their shoes, I sometimes cannot blame them for how they might be feeling.

Take a 21-year-old, for example. As far as national life goes, he or she was born in the shadow of the horrific carnage of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and we all know what happened as they went through childhood, experienced their teenage years, and made their way to adulthood.

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Two long, bloody, costly wars. The Great Recession. A deadly pandemic. A transfer of presidential power that included an afternoon of violence and death. And, of course, the politics, which have been so hateful, bitter and starkly divided that it’s a wonder no one has declared that we are in the midst of what perhaps could be called a Cold Civil War.

These kids, these young adults, never had the so-called “holiday from history” that my generation had. They do not know how to mourn much of what has been lost in our country because they have never experienced it.

Please do not mistake my synopsis of American affairs in recent decades for a lack of love, patriotism and commitment to our country. I love America and still believe we offer levels of freedom and opportunity not seen enough in the world. And every day, in small communities like the ones we cover here on Seacoastonline, there are citizens who quietly do good work – who do all of us proud with their compassion, their generosity, and their efforts to help solve our challenges.

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That’s the America I know. That’s the America I believe in. It’s just been challenging to convince some people that it exists, is all I am saying.

That’s why that young woman’s statement about her generation needing to step forward to repaint that American flag across from Holdsworth Park in Springvale was music to my ears.

She made me think of a recent column by Robert Reich, who served as President Clinton’s Secretary of Labor back in the '90s. In the piece, Reich added himself to the chorus of Democrats calling on President Biden not to seek reelection in 2024, due to his age. Reich tried to make the argument that his generation already had their chance.

“I think my generation – including Bill and Hillary, George W, Trump, Newt Gingrich, Clarence Thomas, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Biden – have (expletive) it up royally,” Reich wrote. “The world will probably be better without us.”

It’s my generation to which Reich is suggesting the leadership baton be passed. It remains to be seen which forty-somethings and fifty-somethings will step forward to take the lead, although we started to get some indication during the presidential primaries of 2016 and 2020. But I will be honest with you. Sometimes I wonder if some people in my generation are looking around and quietly thinking it’s the generation after ours that will need to be the one to clean up the proverbial mess that has been made.

But I pride myself on being an optimist, so perhaps I should keep such pessimism – or what my truly pessimistic friends would claim is realism – in check. I think we can all agree, though, that times have been tough in all sorts of ways for years and years now. Let's have faith that enough of us in these old generations are doing our best to improve our nation’s direction.

And let’s be glad that there are young people – like the one who wants to repaint that American flag here in Sanford-Springvale – who are in the wings and ready to go.

Shawn P. Sullivan is an award-winning columnist and is a reporter for the York County Coast Star. He can be reached at ssullivan@seacoastonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Here's to the young people who are ready to right the American ship