Comfort and Community

Abstract

JUST A month before America's most tragic day, I stood on a corner of the main street in Gallup, New Mexico, watching an Inter-Tribal Ceremonial parade with my 7-year-old granddaughter and some friends from the East Coast. Before the colorful dancers came by, American Legion posts of Native Americans from throughout the Southwest marched solemnly behind their flags. Most of the revered Navajo code talkers, who became heroes in World War II, rode on open-bed trucks, wearing their signatory yellow shirts and red caps with flag insignias. Few were still able to walk in the parade, but they all saluted an adoring crowd. Native Americans sent a larger percentage of foot soldiers to the wars of the last century than any other ethnic group, and they are rightly proud. Still, such displays of patriotism seemed quixotic on that August morning, perhaps even somewhat out of place for peoples who might have more reason to question America's brand of nationalism than most of us. Many weeks later, suburban high school students in my area exhibited the same pride. Accustomed to sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance, they were standing up and reciting the words with an unfamiliar fervor. Theirs is the first generation in a long time to connect so visibly with the patriotism of America's past - if one discounts the hundred hours' war in the Persian Gulf. The connection has always been there to nurture and make stronger because young people tend to be idealists. Granted, for a long time it was cool to show an appreciation of country and flag. Once the big wars of the last century were over and the civil rights movement had lost its glow as a clear action against wrongs, the idealism of youth had nowhere to go. Many young people internalized too much of the cynicism and disengagement of adults, who were struggling with unpopular wars and chicanery and scandals at the highest levels. The young decided that their votes didn't count for much. Still, underneath it all and despite the fact that it is the young who are sent to fight when the old can find no other solutions, our young people have remained believers. They are not interested in political parties, but two-thirds to three-fourths of them trust such political institutions as local government, the courts, and the national government. Their belief in a reasoned role for government was revealed in an international study of civic education, released last spring. …