“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. The famous quote from President Kennedy rings as true today as it did when he uttered those powerful words over fifty years ago. Now, more than ever, we need to reinvigorate this national spirit of service and put it into action sooner than later. There are thousands even millions of people who already give of their time, and so much more, either through military service or meaningful and regular volunteering on a local or national scale. However, there is not enough shared sacrifice and service on the part of everyday American citizens to keep the Republic together, indefinitely into the future. There has been a shrinking sense of concern for the common well-being and purpose.
So many of us do not have any skin in the game. This disconnect between most Americans and those who choose to and or have the need to enter and serve in our Armed Forces is one of the biggest issues hurting our sense of national unity. Most of us have no real idea of the sacrifices military service members and their families have to go through. I’d be the first to admit it. There is of course the physical and mental strain that comes with the training and having to be ready for actual military conflict at any moment. There are also many difficulties for families whose loved ones are deployed for tours overseas and often directly to combat zones. These families make huge sacrifices and sometimes it’s the ultimate sacrifice in the event their soldier doesn’t come back alive.
Hundreds of thousands have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two decades and tens of thousands have been permanently maimed and disfigured and thousands have lost their lives in service to their country. There is a significant gulf of experience between most Americans and those who swear an oath to protect us and defend their country. We have to figure out a way to bridge this gap.
It is unfortunate that the U.S. has to continue to be engaged in seemingly endless conflicts around the world. It would be great if it were otherwise and wonderful if peace, calm, and cooler heads could always prevail, but this is unlikely. Our current global military situation is the result of a combination of things: 1) Our ascendance over the last 100-plus years to being the world’s greatest superpower which brings with it many weighty responsibilities. 2) The calamitous terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the resulting counter-offensive operation and invasion of Afghanistan along with the regretful and avoidable invasion of Iraq. 3) The many misguided foreign policy decisions that have followed since those invasions. 4) The Russian invasion of the sovereign democratic country of Ukraine. Regardless though of how things came about, our young men and women continue to answer the call to service, when needed, and go off to fight and often die in the middle east and elsewhere. Even though major combat operations have ceased in Iraq and Afghanistan and there is a real lack of domestic appetite for large-scale deployments to other countries anytime soon, rest assured there will be other theaters of conflict that will arise. Unfortunately, with ongoing Russian aggressions in Ukraine and relentless saber-rattling from China over Taiwan, the United States could find itself sucked into another conflict with either one of those, potentially dwarfing the scope of military conflicts in the recent past. This would be an awful development and our leadership should do everything possible to avoid putting American troops in harm’s way. However, because it is always a possibility that our armed forces may be needed to defend our sworn allies in NATO or God forbid defend the homeland from direct invasion, it will remain necessary to maintain a sizeable, highly capable, and always alert enlisted military force.
I wish we could avoid getting involved in wars. Looking back through history there were many things that could have happened differently that may have prevented our involvement in several past conflicts. I don’t think we could have avoided all of them, the prime example being WWII where most people are in agreement that we did not have a choice, especially after we were attacked by the Japanese Empire. Others, for example, Iraq, many would agree, that that scenario probably could have been avoided.
Generally speaking though, as the primary superpower in the world now and simultaneously the world’s biggest champion for freedom and democracy (although we’ve had some of our own challenges of late, ie Trump’s refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 election and the resulting Jan 6 insurrection) we cannot afford to just keep our head tucked into the turtle shell of isolation and always remain indifferent to international conflagrations.
Let’s discuss the many motivations for young people to serve in the military. Of course, there are many: patriotism, family tradition, adventure, comradery, and even a combination of all the above. Often times though, the driving force to join is simply economic and education related. More often those enlisting are from poorer and middle-class families than from well-to-do families, and they are disproportionately from minority backgrounds. Often times these individuals do not have the option of attending a four-year university or even a community college because of their economic situation. They may not have the grades coming out of high school to attend college even if they could afford it. So this uncompelled system of national service has major societal and class implications. For the most part, with the exception of typically more well-off students entering into officer training schools like West Point or the Naval Academy, our nation is being served and protected by kids coming from lower-class families. This isn’t news it’s just a reality. Our country needs more shared sacrifice to be felt across the entire socio-economic spectrum.
What we need is a serious national discussion and movement to begin that will call for the creation of a universal service program requiring the participation of all young Americans in either military or some other form of service to their country. This would logically contribute to greater solidarity and to mending some of the political divisions we feel with our fellow Americans. The more people from different classes and backgrounds rub shoulders with each other in service of their country, the less inclined they are to demonize and dehumanize each other. Nothing can tear at the fabric of a country quite like class disparity and we have too much of that right now in the U.S. Now, that statement is not meant to be a dig on capitalism or some call for socialism, but the reality is that currently there is the biggest gap between the haves and the have nots that we’ve ever seen in this country. Our current system which allows for upward mobility based on work ethic and merit, while not perfect, is a good one. But we can always do better, as a society, to continue to create opportunity and lift people out of poverty and deprivation.
Not everyone will be in love with the idea of mandated national service. There will be some resistance, naturally, and some of it could be intense. America has a long tradition of defiance, from both the left and the right when it comes to the idea of government-forced service of any variety. As a long-haired teen and college student myself with liberal leanings, I too would have probably bristled a bit at the time to such a notion. But you know what I say? I say too bad to my former self. Suck it up butter cup, life isn’t always easy and we often have to do things we don’t want to. I would have had to do it and deal with it like every other young person; it would be the great equalizer. None of us like to pay taxes or our mortgages either but we do it because we have to and because it’s the right thing to do. Just like there are laws requiring all kids between the age of 5 – 18 to attend school, otherwise, they must be home-schooled, there should be a law requiring National Service of some variety that compels our comradery and shared sacrifice as a country. There will also, of course, be resistance from some parents of young adults who are uncomfortable with the notion of mandatory attendance to a government-run service corp. But all of that is to be expected and there could be some special exemptions built in based upon physical handicap or religious restrictions, possibly.
America needs something big that communicates that we’re all in this together, whether rich or poor. The collective benefits of tens of millions of young people sharing experiences and participating in this collective sacrifice would be immeasurable. This National Service program would compel families and kids of various socioeconomic groups to interact together. It would instill greater pride in teens and young adults and communicate that we all have a stake in the future of this country. It would strengthen the ties binding us together and help remind us that what we have in common is greater than the differences that push us apart; everyone participates in order to make the country better.
This would not be like the draft or some situation that forces all teenagers to join the military. Everyone would not be forced to join and fight in foreign wars. There would be various options, pathways, and incentive structures available to choose from, some not oriented to military service at all. Military service would be one of the options though, of course. There would be, on some level or another, basic training-like sessions that everyone would be compelled to attend. Everyone would be put in together and assignments to particular locations would be completely random. There would be no special treatment offered, no special lodging for the affluent, and kids from all different backgrounds would be compelled to spend time together. That is a major part of the whole thing. Yes, one could argue that many public schools already offer a similar environment in which students from different backgrounds are forced to interact together. But when you think about it in terms of today’s context, preteens and teens for the most part tend to just hang out with people they consider to be more like themselves. This social segregation can be a function of race, personality, school districting, socioeconomics, and intelligence levels. Regardless of the reasons, it does occur to varying degrees. This new national service program would result in greater interaction.
Accommodations for the camps could possibly utilize existing university campus housing and other infrastructure throughout the country but it could also be located at more traditional summer camp facilities as well. Regardless it would have strict oversight and lodging would be safe and comfortable. It would run for a four to six-week-long period, during summer break following their sophomore year. They would be engaged in various physical and mental team-building exercises with an emphasis on problem-solving and even survival.
For now, let’s just call our new program the Citizens National Service Corps (CNSC). Now, let’s lay out what it would actually look like. Up to this point, students will have been taught American history and detailed courses on civics and the workings of our democratic system of government through USNICE (Step 1 of Pathways to a New American Future), the curriculum of which would begin in 6th grade. Expanding upon what they have already learned, in the CNSC students would take classes in the full range of service categories. Each course would last between 1-2 days and give a detailed overview of exactly what is involved in doing the service work within that sector. The following subjects could be covered:
Working in national parks and/or with the Forest Service
Interning with the EPA on environmental mitigation and cleanup projects.
Military service
Climate and science research
Working with the homeless
Mental health programs
Health and physical fitness
Working with needy families, food banks
Literacy and math tutoring programs for young children
At the end of a two to three-week-long sectors introduction, students will have the opportunity to choose which field they would like to serve in and then actually begin to work with professionals and mentors doing real work in that area. At the end of the four-week session, they will have an opportunity to reconsider their choice of sector or they can keep it. Those that want to reconsider will choose another area of service that they will then have to stick with through the end of their 18th year.
Following the 4-week session students will have to complete a prescribed amount of service time over the next three years. Regardless of their sector choice, each student would either complete 7 weekends of service or two 2-week-long service details, or one 1-month long tour of service each year.
In my opinion, this is not much to ask of young people in order to give back to their nation and fellow Americans. And I would say that overall the experiences, exposure to different people and ideas, and relationships formed for the future would be an incredible benefit to the personal development of each participant and would immensely strengthen the fabric of our country.
Again, I don’t think this will be an easy thing to bring to fruition. There will have to be a national conversation begun and sustained by a variety of different groups that recognize what the benefits could be. It will be a difficult sell within certain sectors of our society who will consider it a burden and encroachment of the federal government. This is where it will be important to appeal to peoples’ sense of patriotism. If we can pull it off, if enough people on a grassroots level get behind it and push for its adoption then lawmakers could begin to draft legislation that ultimately could lead to its reality. It will require a shift towards more selflessness. Unfortunately, things seem to have been moving in the opposite direction lately. Selfishness, indifference, and acrimony are ascendent traits in the last few years. It will be challenging to reverse this pattern, but what choice do we have. It will take bold independent-minded leadership and a greater level of patience and humility on the part of all of us to embrace this new national agenda. The only option is that we must begin to come together. It’s not just going to happen magically overnight. It will take a lot of hard work by many many people to make it happen. And then it will take the manifestation of millions of hours of positive activities and interactions to change the national dynamic.
Some people may question why to make the age from 16-18 years of age instead of starting the service period after graduation from high school. If you wait till then it would be incredibly difficult to compel a majority of young Americans to participate. The rate of noncompliance would certainly be much greater. Once people have reached the age of 18 many of their worldviews and personality traits are set in stone. We all know kids can be difficult and rebellious, starting even before they turn 13 parents can often struggle with negative attitudes and resistance to forced activities. But at sixteen, most kids are still impressionable and malleable vs. most 18-year-olds. Most kids are still in school at sixteen and are used to the regimental attendance that is required of them. The CNSC will seem in many ways just something else that they have to do before they graduate. And in order to receive their diplomas from high school they will have had to complete their CNSC requirements. This little detail will obviously have to be negotiated between state and national lawmakers before and during the drafting of the congressional legislation. But federal and state officials have worked out thornier issues than this before. It is achievable. Whatever it takes, we have to institute a national service program to help bridge the gaps within American Society and bring us closer together.