Posted on: Sunday, December 22, 2002
COMMENTARY
Mandatory public service may be worth reconsidering
By John Griffin
President Bush struck a resonant note with me when he called for a "season of service" in which Americans volunteer to help those in need. But how about adding "a season of sacrifice"?
Of course, Bush's call was just in a Thanksgiving radio message delivered from the remote comfort of his ranch. Regardless, volunteerism clearly has its virtues, and our civic society — the vast nonprofit service area between government and business — needs encouragement and support.
At the same time, I found myself thinking once again about the pros and cons of activating the now-standby military draft — and going beyond that to instituting the idea of required universal service for virtually all young Americans.
Shortly after last year's 9/11 terror, when patriotism and a desire to help ran high, I advocated universal service, which might include a year or more in the military, Peace Corps, or various domestic service programs now under Bush's USA Freedom Corps. They could be picked by lottery.
Much has happened since then. But one thing that hasn't is any real movement to rally all Americans to more forms of public service that address our nation's and the world's deeper problems, the ones that breed hate and terror.
The administration still opposes a military draft and is focused on calling up reserves by the tens of thousands.
The economy is in deficit and continues to struggle, so the climate is not good for more nonmilitary service programs. The new Republican Congress seems unlikely to entertain such ideas, and the old idealism of Democrats is muted.
Bush and company have been skilled at building support for the war on terrorism and in getting most Americans to back an invasion of Iraq.
This helped the president and his party to win the November election despite our serious domestic problems.
But the ideas of sacrifice and high costs in money, lives and American image are glossed over in the threat of war on Iraq. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman put it this way:
"The Bush team's whole approach was best summed up by a friend of mine: 'We're at war —let's party.' We're at war — let's not ask the American people to do anything hard."
And yet many make the point that Americans must see we are not in a simple military struggle to be fought by other peoples' young men and women.
Rather we are in multidimensional wars — with a militant branch of Islam, with other global issues that include poverty, disease and rising anti-Americanism. And that's not to mention problems at home such as the environment, struggling schools, lost jobs and corporate scandals.
The new Department of Homeland Security faces an enormous challenge just to get organized. But homeland security issues go beyond just fighting terror, important as that is as a priority. Americans must be led into seeing a bigger picture.
Oddly, one of the short-term hopes I see lies in the Bush administration.
It may be, as some analysts suggest, that the administration is playing high-stakes poker on Iraq, partly bluffing or gambling that it can force a solution short of war. That seems like more of a hope than a sure bet.
It may be that events will force changes of attitude. After all, this is an administration that was hell bent on an arrogant unilateralism abroad until 9/11 dramatized the need for alliances and coalitions. This was also a White House that resisted the Democrats' calls for an umbrella homeland security department and then embraced it.
For now, the idea of a draft and required other service does not sit well with much current conservative Republican philosophy. (Indeed, many liberals still haunted by Vietnam might be wary of giving the likes of this administration hundreds of thousands of draftees to police the world, Roman-style.)
Still, it at least seems possible that events will alter some attitudes on mandatory public service that avoids the inequities of the Vietnam era, includes elite youth as well as poor ones, and helps create bonds between all citizens.
Service learning — taking part in nonprofit programs and institutions that help needy folks — is already mandatory in many high schools and some colleges. Some current government service programs might be privatized in using universal-service youths, a bow toward winning conservative support.
So there are ways we could do more. But, for now, the Bush administration has been providing the nation with what might be called "a comfortable crisis" that masks our true challenges and needs in the world around us.
John Griffin, former editor of The Advertiser's editorial pages, is a frequent contributor.
