We need national service
As a baby boomer, guest columnist wonders if America can still produce a great generation.
As a Baby Boomer, I am a son of the so-called Greatest Generation. I wonder whether America is still able to produce a great generation, and if not, why not?
Tom Brokaw popularized the term The Greatest Generation in his 1998 book, and those born roughly between 1901 and 1927 were forever memorialized by the term, both for their exploits in the war and their grit and determination that allowed them to rise from the depths of the Great Depression.
The current pandemic has convinced me that we are far from the bar set by G.I. Joe and Rosie the Riveter.
For evidence one does not have to look any farther than the response so many Americans have had to COVID-19. The rebellion against common sense public health measures claiming an abridgement of Constitutional rights is selfish, stupid, and demonstrates a lack of caring for fellow citizens.
Can anyone imagine this type of response if a Covid-like pandemic had hit the United States in the 1950s. My parents’ generation would have attacked Covid with the same determination and commitment to the common good with which it attacked the Great Depression, World War II, and the many by-products of those times like food lines, shortages of essential items, and rationing. I am not a sociologist, but I believe it is because they had “skin in the game”. They had weathered some of the worst the world could throw at them, and then they began building a country, an economy, and a society that would become the envy of the world.
Now, seven decades later, Americans are divided politically, socially, and economically, and there is little talk of the common good. While my parents’ generation built a middle class that powered this country for decades, our society is now marked by an evergrowing economic divide.
We have come to this point, in my opinion, because too many of our citizens do not have the skin in the game. Generations subsequent to my parents’ have been coddled, enabled, and rarely asked to contribute to the common good. Instead, of the common good, it has become “what is good for me”.
One early contributing factor to this mindset was the end of the military draft in the United States in 1973. There are certainly advantages to a volunteer military, but it also excused millions of young Americans from contributing to this country, and deprived them of important interaction with people of different social, racial, cultural and economic backgrounds, which in turn contributes to the tribalization of America.
Another factor has been the way succeeding generations have raised their children. My parental peers raised what I call the “everyone gets a trophy” generation. We had to protect our children’s psyche and make sure their self-image was intact. This generation is now in their 30s and 40s, and too many of them entered competitive society expecting to be rewarded for doing little.
This generation begat “helicopter parents”. Not satisfied with trying to eliminate negative events, these parents are now trying to bubble wrap their kids to protect them from bad things happening. This attitude continues to grow and most recently manifested itself with rich parents bribing college coaches to get their non-athletic kids into better colleges.
All of this has gotten us to the point where people are tired of restrictions, while many of those haven’t followed them in the first place.
There is no simple answer to this problem, but to me one partial solution would be for the United States to mandate two years of national service for all Americans between the ages of 18 and 26. National service would foster unity and bring people from diverse backgrounds together; save the government money and provide benefits to all citizens. In addition, it could give those not necessarily college bound an entrée into a skilled profession, and give those going to college a broader range of experiences that would positively affect their ability to lead later in life. I know that my four years in the Navy provided me with all of that.
Brokaw wrote that the Greatest Generation was comprised of “ordinary people whose lives are laced with the markings of greatness.” Protecting our children from everything might mean protecting them from the marks and scars that could make them great. Brokaw also wrote that they “answered the call to help save the world.” National service would give our young people a chance to help save America by helping themselves.