Our summer community sponsors a boat parade every Fourth of July. The participants decorate their boats with American flags and other patriotic regalia; then the boats parade down the Bay with people on the sidelines cheering. Some people take a humorous approach to decorating their boat. Other people play it straight. Everyone enjoys the event. It’s just something we always do to celebrate this national holiday.

During the week before the boat parade this summer, our cottage was filled with an eclectic bunch of 12 people. One young woman hails from Cape Verde, an island country off the coast of Western Africa. Another woman has a French mother and an American father. The parents of another woman came to the U.S. from Taiwan. Two members of our brood recently spent two years in Brazil. Half of our group were of mixed race. The ages ranged from nine months to 73 years. Every adult in our group applauded the recent Supreme Court decision regarding same-sex marriage and the call to take down the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina state house.

Infused with the spirit of diversity and inclusivity, we brainstormed ideas for decorating our 17-foot Whaler: “Let’s get the flags of the many countries represented here … let’s get the ‘rainbow flag’ … let’s fly a big banner over everything that bears the words, ‘E Pluribus Unum. (‘Out of many, one.’)” So we went to work, starting with a call to a flag store in Gorham.

Six adults and three kids boarded the boat on the morning of the Fourth. In addition to a big American flag and a sign that said “E Pluribus Unum” our members held up five different flags: Cape Verde, Taiwan, France, Brazil and the Rainbow Flag. The flag holders stood on one side of the boat so the bystanders (and judges) could see them. We were a spirited and colorful group, slapping high-fives, proud that we had come up with an idea that was both creative and, in our view, deeply patriotic.

We didn’t win any of the big awards that were announced that night. We did, however, get cited as “most crowded boat.” Hmmmm… .

Was our boat a slam on America or an acknowledgment of our nation’s history? Before addressing that question, it should be noted that we could have flown several other flags that day representing the countries of origin of our group: Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany and Sweden.

A recent New York Times article noted that the Irish of the 1850s were referred to by one reporter as “scum unloaded on American wharves.” The article went on to say that, “Nearly 50 years later, as Italians and southern Europeans left their barren lands for hope in America, a prominent educator and writer, Francis A. Walker, expressed a widely held view of these new arrivals: ‘They are beaten men from beaten races, representing the worst failures in the struggle for existence.’” And more: “The Chinese of the late 19th century were subject to exclusion laws and outright pogroms on the west coast and cast as inscrutable opium addicts.” As I understand it, the French-Canadians in our tolerant town of Brunswick faced their own discrimination in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Have things changed? Well, yes and no. We’re not likely these days to label the Irish as “scum” or the Chinese as “opium addicts.” But Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Mexicans remind us that America’s open hands can become angry fists. When he referred to Mexicans as “rapists and criminals” he lost many endorsements and responded with many lawsuits. On the other hand, and perhaps not surprisingly, the Donald gained big-time in the GOP polls, cheered on by the kind of people who groove on Rush Limbaugh and Ted Cruz.

Back to the boat parade. I don’t mind (too much) that our boat didn’t get a slightly better award than “most crowded boat.” If we didn’t deserve “most creative” how about “most spirited” or “most thoughtful”? Or, I would argue in the grand scheme of things, most American? Yes, how about “most American”? I could live with that.

———

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes comments or suggestions for future articles. [email protected].