Almost 50 years ago, George Benson wrote the song “The Greatest Love of All” for a film about Muhammad Ali. Its first verse contains one of the more iconic lines from that era: “I believe the children are our future.”
I’ll admit it’s a nice song. It’s not my kind of song, but it’s decent enough. Besides, it’s not the song that intrigues me as much as that one line that starts it off.
It seems to be a generational rite of passage to complain about the next one coming along. My parents did it, we did it, the Gen X people did it, Millennials are doing it, and Gen Zers (I think I have that right) are hearing it.
In the case of my parents’ generation, they got it right. Look at what we Baby Boomers have done — we’ve made a complete mess of this world. Look at our politics. You’d have to say the situation is hopeless. We have two different political mindsets right now, and it would appear that one side would have to meet the other side in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. That’s how far apart — and how intractable — we’ve become.
That’s not a good legacy, and I’m afraid it’s one we share with the next group that’s come along. Josh Hawley’s not one of us. He’s only 41.
We all have to get past this feeling that the world’s going to come to a crashing halt once we’re too old to run it. Talking to a Peabody High School junior Sunday on a story we’re doing for the weekly newspaper, it struck me: What we’ve put today’s kids through in these past two years is criminal. Not just here on the North Shore, but everywhere.
First of all, there was COVID. The world shut down. Kids whose futures depended on the extracurricular activities in which they’d been involved were told “too bad, kids, it’s for the greater good,” or something to that effect.
I’ll admit. I was the loudest among those who said “it’s a shame, really, but there’s nothing you can do.” And maybe there wasn’t, but outside of the teachers who’d helped nurture these kids, nobody paid too much attention to them. They were kids. As Eddie Cochran once wrote, “I’d like to help you, son, but you’re too young to vote.”
But the boy I was talking to, Cameron Collins, said, quite simply, “I learned to adjust.” And there it was. Today’s high school students, if they’ve learned nothing else, have learned what it means to pivot in the real-world sense. In the future, they’ll be better able to adapt to situations quickly, and make sense out of them. I see that as a good thing.
And thanks (no thanks might express it better) to the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing awakening to the depth of systemic racism in the U.S., kids today are better attuned to it. They understand, much more than my generation ever did, that for things to change, they have to be the ones to do it.
Look at Carlos Prudencio and Damianny Garrido of Lynn English. They’re the two seniors who pushed and pushed to get a Black Lives Matter mural put on Essex Street in the proximity of the courthouse, police station and City Hall. They ran into some serious resistance, but it didn’t faze them. They kept pushing. Last week the City Council approved it.
Earlier this winter I spoke to a Classical journalism class whose teacher, Jacqlyn Culwell, used to be an Item intern. It would have been a great opportunity for these students to sleep sullenly through the class. Instead, they were engaged. They asked excellent questions, and when it was time for the class to end, I didn’t want it to.
How about Aja Alimonte and Amber Kiricoples in Peabody? These kids are committed to bringing mental-health issues to light and have spent an enormous amount of their time with their cause. Bakari Mitchell is a METCO student at Lynnfield High, who lives in Dorchester, and who has to get up at zero-dark-thirty so he can make it to school on time. In Swampscott, we have Myra Diaz and Tabitha Randell, student representatives on the School Committee.
I realize that we all know, and have all known, clusters of kids who have taken an active role in civic affairs. However, at this time, with the way they’ve been bounced around, seeing high school students engaged the way these young men and women are is especially exhilarating. They had every reason in the world to check out, but they didn’t.
So here’s to the next generation. Like those who came before them, and like those who will come after them, they defy generalizations and categories. They are their own people, and a lot of them are very bright.
Yes, the kids are all right.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
