MB Civic

The United States began as an experiment in whether free people of all classes can overcome the obstacles of working shoulder-to-shoulder and govern themselves with nothing but mutually agreed law to bind us. We all understand that in order for this to work there are some parts of our civic life we share a responsibility for. For instance, you are supposed to show up for jury duty and pay taxes. And not long ago military service was also considered a normal part of being a citizen.

At any given moment Americans of all political persuasions are calling for America to intervene in world affairs. To fight terror, provide humanitarian relief, stop ethnic cleansing, spread democracy, interdict drug traffic, stop nuclear proliferation, rescue civilians; the list is as endless as there are American leaders with ideas about how the world should be. That the military is asked to do something is commonplace. What is not commonplace is an honest discussion of who is asked to do that “something.”

Not so long ago our great universities provided countless officers and enlisted troops. They took their training and insight and later became leaders in the larger society. In the 1950s, half the graduates of the nation’s top schools served. Our schools believed that their best and brightest would bring the spirit of free America to the field, and bring the lessons of the field home to inform the next generation of policy makers. Harvard University pioneered ROTC, the same school that now bars it from its ranks. The Ivies now send less than one percent of their alumni to serve.

Perhaps it is time you reconsider the chosen path of privilege, or should I say the path chosen for you. Perhaps it is time for a few of you to do something your parents, certainly some members of this faculty, and many of your peers will find outlandish, even disdainful.

I suspect no one has ever asked you to consider volunteering. The nation’s leaders, including me, have not done enough to join in a bipartisan effort to ask our most privileged to serve and by doing so depoliticize this choice. By our silence we have acquiesced to what has become a class divide regarding who serves and who does not.

This is not a Republican or Democrat issue but one that confronts all Americans. And it is not about any particular war or whom we voted for. It is about maintaining a strong common defense no matter who is president. It is about fairness and decency and citizenship. It is about caring for our country and a level playing field.

Yes, the military involves risk. And yes, the military isn’t perfect. That fact should not close your mind to serving your country. Where are you, our most privileged young people, going to experience the joys of selflessness and sacrifice for the common good? How will our military change and improve if everyone waits for someone else to do it? Where do our social and economic classes mix and learn mutual respect when the wealthy send their sons and daughters to private schools and the poor go to public schools and never the twain shall meet with common purpose?

In the military you will not only serve your country but help close the information gap between the military and your friends, those who are influential in opinion-making and decision-making. That will help our country be more democratic. It might also help keep us out of frivolous foreign entanglements.

America’s military represents all of you, to our credit or shame. To own that credit, or repair the shame, it is incumbent on all of us to consider becoming actively vested. It is time to revive idealism for the sake of the American experiment.

Frank Schaeffer is author of the forthcoming novel “Baby Jack.” Kathy Roth Douquet is a former Clinton White House aide. They are the coauthors of “AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from the Military — and How It Hurts Our Country.”