One of the benefits of being in the mortgage business is the opportunity to meet so many people who are considering a home purchase or a refinance. This past week, on the 16th anniversary of 9/11, I was thinking about the young people who are buying their first home now that they are 27 years old and how they may have felt 16 years ago when they saw the twin towers fall to terrorism. They were 11 and probably pretty scared about the future and now they are experiencing the American dream. I was also thinking about the huge numbers of young adults who put their dreams of education and jobs on hold and volunteered for the military after 9/11, to defend the American dream. I have been honored to meet quite a few of these people who are now 34 to 40 years old – some wounded warriors – who risked their lives for their families and for all of us. Many of my fellow baby boomers are pretty upset about the state of the union but trust me, readers, these young people are a very impressive group of Americans. They are going to have to deal with a divided country, $20 trillion in debt and a country in which 63 percent of the population has less than $1,000 in the bank, but I think they will succeed because I see so many young people in Solano County starting families with good jobs, decent financial statements and good credit scores. Many of my friends are actually disgusted with some of the stuff that has been going on in Washington, D.C., over the years and are concerned about the future of the U.S., but then I look at my kids and all of their kids and see hope because they are doing so well in their careers and raising new families. We just have to do everything we can to reduce that 63 percent to 43 percent so our kids and us baby boomers don’t have to pay for all the people who haven’t found the American dream. We mortgage bankers and Realtors need to help our teachers educate the people who have no money, poor credit and weak financial statements on how to achieve financial success and homeownership. I believe in the millennials and believe they will turn this country around like the greatest generation did after World War II.