Renewed faith in the younger generation

This may be a lesson to anyone over the age of 30, including myself, who has thought and/or voiced the opinion, "The current generation of older teens and young adults is 'bound for hell in a handbasket.'"

My oldest son is chairman of the board of trustees at St. Lawrence University. After a two-year search, miles and miles of travel and countless hours of interviews, their choice for a new president was made. Dr. William and Mrs. Fox moved to Canton early in the summer, are firmly installed in the president's residence and are already well-acquainted with the community and their duties.

There were several days of festivities involving the board of trustees, the alumni, the students, the faculty and other staff members of the university, officials from Canton township and the village besides visiting dignitaries from other educational institutions. The keynote speaker for the actual ceremony was Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who is also an alumna of St. Lawrence University and was a classmate of Dr. Fox.

This background gives me a chance to brag, because I was also one of the guests at most of the functions. I was properly impressed by all of the pomp and circumstance, bursting with pride in my son who has grown from a country bumpkin raised in the town of Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County to a cultured, cultivated man who was comfortable serving as master of ceremonies at the inauguration.

But, most of all, I was very impressed with the individuals I met from the student body. They were unfailingly considerate of everyone, diligent in the performance of their duties, cheerful when events did not always happen according to schedule and talented in many areas beyond their years.

The argument could be made that this was a special occasion, and it was, and it probably did serve to bring out the best attributes in all of the participants. But, we met so many of the students, on and off campus, including a large number of the freshman class, who had been at the university no more than two months. I feel that the compassion, the intelligence, the integrity, the variety of talents that I observed in my stay there, are qualities which are common in the majority of the late teens and young adults all over the country. This makes me feel much more comfortable about the future of our planet, which I will not be around to experience, than I have at any time in the past 80-plus years.

Jennie Scott Rose

Halfmoon