Paths to patriotism

"These young people are pretty strong patriots, but not necessarily in the American Legion style," says A.J. Shragge, a lecturer at the University of California in San Diego. He says that his students contributed generously to a Girl Scout campaign that sent boxes of cookies to troops in Afghanistan. "Here was some little thing they could do."

"There are not a lot of obvious outlets for patriotism," he adds. " 'Get on with life' was the only message."

As their lives go on, though, it's evident that Sept. 11 is forcing many young Americans to rethink their detachment from their country. To them, American government does not evoke images of President Franklin Roosevelt fighting the Nazi empire or Lyndon Johnson battling the scourge of racism. Instead, it is sketched entirely in the colors of President Clinton and his moral foibles, Congress in its vindictiveness, and the divisiveness of an unresolved election two years ago. Now, called on to celebrate the institutions many have always ridiculed, the transition is not an easy one.

"There's a lot of confusion now about what to do," says Daryl Maas, a young lieutenant in the Air Force. "We're not really sure how to feel."

For him, patriotism has always meant a clear-cut love of country. Blond and trim, the Air Force Academy grad enlisted right after high school, and he says he feels even stronger now about the need to serve his country. But it's not something he sees in many of his peers.

"Our country is so big and powerful, we're used to protesting against it," says Lieutenant Maas, who has spent time in Japan, Colombia, Spain, and the Czech Republic since joining the Air Force. "Our generation has looked down on blind patriotism, and ... some people have never had to decide where they stand. Before, we had the luxury of criticizing from a distance."

Since Sept. 11, the choice of cherishing or criticizing has been made – if anything – more urgent and complex.

Portland State student Burnett, who grew up with an artist father in the eclectic seaside town of Carmel, Calif., where Tudor-style British pubs mix with Gucci bags and groves of cypress trees, says the idea of war and violence is repulsive. She feels bad that America bombed Afghanistan: "I could never hurt anyone or be involved in that."

But the images of Sept. 11 evoked something unexpected in her, and she can't bring herself to condemn America's response. "I can't even describe all my emotions," she says as she twists a wire sculpture. "You can't just watch something like that and not cry ... and not hurt for your own country."

What happens from here may depend in large part on what happens next in the war on terrorism. After all, Pearl Harbor became a transcendent event because it was the start of something greater – a war that has since been cast as a victory over evil.

So it may be with Sept. 11 and the nascent stirrings of a new – but different – patriotism among young adults. "If the United States is able to contain terrorism," says Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., "then it will contribute ... to greater patriotism."

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