Give America a Break. Let the Military on Campus.
Excerpts from:
Let the Military on Campus
By E.J. Dionne, Jr.
The Washington Post
December 3, 2004
When a circuit court ruled this week that universities could bar military recruiters from campuses without the risk of losing federal money, many liberals cheered. They should hold the cheering and reconsider the implications of their actions.
Whatever the merits of the ruling, the idea of keeping recruiters away from elite universities is a large mistake - for the military, for our country and for liberalism itself. The growing separation between the military and many parts of our society, especially its most liberal and elite precincts, is a huge problem. Closing that divide should be one of liberalism's highest priorities. It should be a high priority for the military, too.
The case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit involved a decade-old federal . . . law [that] prohibits the federal government from giving money to colleges and universities that block military recruiting.
[U]niversities . . . should . . . voluntarily open their doors to recruiters. Liberals especially should be worried about the growing divide between the armed forces and many parts of our society. They should acknowledge that if liberals stay out of the military, their chances of influencing the military culture are reduced to close to zero. Above all, liberals should worry about the unfairness in the way the burdens of service are borne.
As former Navy secretary John Lehman wrote in The Post last year, "Our all-volunteer force, for all its many virtues, is not representative of American society. The privileged are largely absent from it. Thus the burdens of defense and the perils of combat do not fall even close to fairly across all of our society."
Lehman was reacting to a notable 2002 New York Times op-ed by Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat. "A disproportionate number of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the military, while the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or absent," Rangel wrote.
One of the most powerful warnings about the dangerous gap between military and civilian life came from Thomas E. Ricks, now a correspondent on military affairs for The Post. In his book "Making the Corps" and in an influential 1997 article in the Atlantic Monthly, Ricks spoke of the increasing distance between military and civilian life -- and in particular the split between the military and our professional civilian classes.
"U.S. military personnel of all ranks are feeling increasingly alienated from their own country, and are becoming both more conservative and more politically active than ever before," Ricks wrote in the Atlantic. He argued that the division between military and civilian life was a symptom of something larger: "the isolation of professional Americans, or the upper middle class, from the broad concerns of society. Ignorance of the military is, I think, just one manifestation of that larger problem."
Yes, and liberal university administrators can do something about it. The best way to change the military and to create greater fairness in sharing the burdens of defending our country is to embrace the call to service, not reject it. By opening their doors to recruiters, our universities can strengthen our democracy.
_______________
I attended Davidson College, a small liberal arts college located north of Charlotte in the town of Davidson, N.C. Davidson was founded in 1837 by Presbyterians, and today enrolls approximately 1,600 men and women.
When I graduated from Davidson its enrollment was and had for many, many years been approximately 1,000 men.
Did I mind it going coed? Heck no. Two of my three daughters applied, were accepted, and the youngest seriously considered attending, and probably would have had her two older sisters not convinced her that God had indeed created one other perfect place in this world besides Douglas --Athens.
While at Davidson I was enrolled in the Army ROTC program. I am proud that Davidson still maintains this program.
In doing this post I reviewed the Davidson College ROTC website, which notes in part:
"Leadership. It's a quality few people are born with, yet so many have exhibited throughout history. And no one has better personified the true art of leadership than the American Army officer. It was clearly visible during the bone-chilling winter at Valley Forge; at Gettysburg, when the very fabric of our country was being tested; and again during World War II, on the beaches from France to the Philippines. In fact, many of our most prominent leaders, people who've helped shape the course of our country's history, started out as Army officers. Many of them emerged from Davidson College, including former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, to Davidson College President Bobby Vagt."
Davidson College President Bobby Vagt was my hall counselor my freshman year, and I am proud to have had some small role several years ago in arranging for Dean Rusk to be the speaker at our annual Douglas-Coffee County Chamber of Commerce banquet.
Why did I -- along with former Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Davidson College President Bobby Vagt -- enroll in Davidson’s Army ROTC program? Because it was required our first two years.
But many at Davidson remained in the ROTC program during their junior and senior years, and graduated from Davidson as commissioned junior officers in the United States Army, having attended boot camp during the intervening summer at Ft. Bragg.
In my office, along with my diplomas, etc., I proudly display my Honorable Discharge from the United States Army as a Captain.
As school board attorney, I worked for at least a decade with our local board in attempting to get one of the armed services to install a ROTC program at Coffee High School. About five years ago our efforts came to fruition, and now many area high schools are envious of our highly successful Navy ROTC program.
Its success has been beyond our wildest dreams, and annually both its enrollment – male and female – continues to swell, as does its space needs. And discipline problems of those enrolled? You’re right. They are non-existent.
Did getting a Navy rather than an Army suit me? To a T. My wife Sally’s father is a retired Fighter Pilot in the United States Navy. And besides, Top Gun is one of my favorite movies.
So do you believe I think we need to let the military on campus? Or should I not bother asking?
Let the Military on Campus
By E.J. Dionne, Jr.
The Washington Post
December 3, 2004
When a circuit court ruled this week that universities could bar military recruiters from campuses without the risk of losing federal money, many liberals cheered. They should hold the cheering and reconsider the implications of their actions.
Whatever the merits of the ruling, the idea of keeping recruiters away from elite universities is a large mistake - for the military, for our country and for liberalism itself. The growing separation between the military and many parts of our society, especially its most liberal and elite precincts, is a huge problem. Closing that divide should be one of liberalism's highest priorities. It should be a high priority for the military, too.
The case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit involved a decade-old federal . . . law [that] prohibits the federal government from giving money to colleges and universities that block military recruiting.
[U]niversities . . . should . . . voluntarily open their doors to recruiters. Liberals especially should be worried about the growing divide between the armed forces and many parts of our society. They should acknowledge that if liberals stay out of the military, their chances of influencing the military culture are reduced to close to zero. Above all, liberals should worry about the unfairness in the way the burdens of service are borne.
As former Navy secretary John Lehman wrote in The Post last year, "Our all-volunteer force, for all its many virtues, is not representative of American society. The privileged are largely absent from it. Thus the burdens of defense and the perils of combat do not fall even close to fairly across all of our society."
Lehman was reacting to a notable 2002 New York Times op-ed by Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat. "A disproportionate number of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the military, while the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or absent," Rangel wrote.
One of the most powerful warnings about the dangerous gap between military and civilian life came from Thomas E. Ricks, now a correspondent on military affairs for The Post. In his book "Making the Corps" and in an influential 1997 article in the Atlantic Monthly, Ricks spoke of the increasing distance between military and civilian life -- and in particular the split between the military and our professional civilian classes.
"U.S. military personnel of all ranks are feeling increasingly alienated from their own country, and are becoming both more conservative and more politically active than ever before," Ricks wrote in the Atlantic. He argued that the division between military and civilian life was a symptom of something larger: "the isolation of professional Americans, or the upper middle class, from the broad concerns of society. Ignorance of the military is, I think, just one manifestation of that larger problem."
Yes, and liberal university administrators can do something about it. The best way to change the military and to create greater fairness in sharing the burdens of defending our country is to embrace the call to service, not reject it. By opening their doors to recruiters, our universities can strengthen our democracy.
_______________
I attended Davidson College, a small liberal arts college located north of Charlotte in the town of Davidson, N.C. Davidson was founded in 1837 by Presbyterians, and today enrolls approximately 1,600 men and women.
When I graduated from Davidson its enrollment was and had for many, many years been approximately 1,000 men.
Did I mind it going coed? Heck no. Two of my three daughters applied, were accepted, and the youngest seriously considered attending, and probably would have had her two older sisters not convinced her that God had indeed created one other perfect place in this world besides Douglas --Athens.
While at Davidson I was enrolled in the Army ROTC program. I am proud that Davidson still maintains this program.
In doing this post I reviewed the Davidson College ROTC website, which notes in part:
"Leadership. It's a quality few people are born with, yet so many have exhibited throughout history. And no one has better personified the true art of leadership than the American Army officer. It was clearly visible during the bone-chilling winter at Valley Forge; at Gettysburg, when the very fabric of our country was being tested; and again during World War II, on the beaches from France to the Philippines. In fact, many of our most prominent leaders, people who've helped shape the course of our country's history, started out as Army officers. Many of them emerged from Davidson College, including former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, to Davidson College President Bobby Vagt."
Davidson College President Bobby Vagt was my hall counselor my freshman year, and I am proud to have had some small role several years ago in arranging for Dean Rusk to be the speaker at our annual Douglas-Coffee County Chamber of Commerce banquet.
Why did I -- along with former Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Davidson College President Bobby Vagt -- enroll in Davidson’s Army ROTC program? Because it was required our first two years.
But many at Davidson remained in the ROTC program during their junior and senior years, and graduated from Davidson as commissioned junior officers in the United States Army, having attended boot camp during the intervening summer at Ft. Bragg.
In my office, along with my diplomas, etc., I proudly display my Honorable Discharge from the United States Army as a Captain.
As school board attorney, I worked for at least a decade with our local board in attempting to get one of the armed services to install a ROTC program at Coffee High School. About five years ago our efforts came to fruition, and now many area high schools are envious of our highly successful Navy ROTC program.
Its success has been beyond our wildest dreams, and annually both its enrollment – male and female – continues to swell, as does its space needs. And discipline problems of those enrolled? You’re right. They are non-existent.
Did getting a Navy rather than an Army suit me? To a T. My wife Sally’s father is a retired Fighter Pilot in the United States Navy. And besides, Top Gun is one of my favorite movies.
So do you believe I think we need to let the military on campus? Or should I not bother asking?
posted by Sid Cottingham | 3:56 PM
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