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How an Ohio Boy Scout made sure the flag was still there

An Ohio high school student's reverence for the American flag struck a chord on social media, as Americans prepare for Memorial Day observances.

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Steven Senne/AP
Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts carry a Nashua, N.H. flag and the American flag as they walk across the field following the singing of the national anthem before the start of a baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox, Sunday, May 22, 2016, in Boston.

He just couldn't let the flag touch the ground.

Cole Dotson was driving by a Continental, Ohio, school on Sunday when he saw the US flag dragging on the ground, Colleen Seitz reported for the Cleveland-based CBS affiliate WOIO. The teenager rushed to pick up the flag while he called his grandmother for help. The family ended up posting a photo of Cole, holding up the flag while waiting for backup, online. Since then it has been shared more than 39,000 times after his mother and grandmother, who made a quick call for help with flag, posted it on Facebook.

Coming the week before Memorial Day, when flags flutter around the nation in honor of the armed services, the act of respect demonstrates the interest that America's national symbols continue to generate, even as definitions of patriotism continue to evolve. 

In her Facebook post, Rhonda Ordway Pester, expressed pride in her son's patriotism and appreciation that he had learned in Boy Scouts how to treat the nation's symbol. Cole comes from a military family and has military aspirations as well, WOIO reports.

"I didn't intend to get recognized for what I did," Cole wrote on Facebook. "But I am sure glad to see the support and respect for the flag. I love this flag and this country. God bless America."

Some expressions of pride in the nation's flag incite more controversy. In 2015, the student body government at University of California at Irvine voted to ban all flags – including the US flag – from campus as "symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism." The ban was quickly overturned amid outcry and was dismissed by many as the battle of young iconoclasts just learning to digest the contradictions of the nation's history. Others said it pointed to a gradual evolution in American feelings of nationalism, as Mark Sappenfield wrote for the Monitor at the time.

Definitions of patriotism tend to vary by generation. Studies show fewer Millennials are inspired by America's traditional symbols. Many still call themselves patriotic, but the group's trademark anti-institutional angst has manifested itself in ambivalence for America's flag, even as enthusiasm reigns for her ideals, as Jessica Mendoza wrote for the Monitor last year:

Plenty of studies have found that, based on traditional benchmarks for patriotism, Millennials are less patriotic than previous generations. The Pew Research Center has called it “a generational gap in American patriotism,” with only 15 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds today saying that the United States is the greatest country in the world.

That’s compared to about half of 30- to 64-year-olds and a fraction of those 65 and up.

Despite the changing feeling, the robust commentary proves that these American symbols remain potent. It was a debate uncovered by Vanessa Hicks, a Virginia Beach photographer, former Navy woman, and wife of an active-duty serviceman, who posted a photo of a father in military dress, cradling his newborn in an American flag. Comments on the photo expressed both derision and support, as well as some who felt the photo desecrated the national symbol.

Ms. Hicks ultimately chose to regard the debate as part of the freedom for which the serviceman was fighting. 

"I stood up for the picture," Ms. Hicks wrote on her Facebook page. "To me, that is what being an American is about."

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