From A Citizen-Soldier
This I found via Insty. The soldier writing this piece graduated from Yale University. Read the whole thing, please.
The part that caught my attention, though was this:
I was not part of a military family. I was born in El Paso, Texas. My father delivered milk and my mother worked at home.
That should make anyone think. My father was a teacher, as was my mother before we were born. My little brother, after serving for seven years, went ROTC at Eastern Michigan University and is now a major in the regular army. It is sad that those institutions that are supposed to be the finest academic institutions in this nation have to struggle with whether to permit students to take a particular series of courses on their campuses. It is sad that this nation permits that struggle without saying ‘certainly they can; without students willing to take that course, you are defenseless to those who would deny any study’.
It should cause one to think that the Ivy-Leaguer wasn’t from an Ivy-League family. He is from the solid working class. He isn’t one of the fortunate few from the fortunate families. Once, upon a short time ago, the fortunate few would have demanded to go forth, to prove that they were as worthy as any. Now, not so much. (Although John McCain’s sons are following the flag, and to give him credit, one of Joe Biden’s is also. But others?)
It is sad that it only took a few years to come to this – the Ivy-Leaguers proud to serve are those who got there by work and ability; not by legacy.
- Entries
I was commenting on ROTC (probably poorly), and how the greatest institutions can't seem to accept it when they exist because there is a nation and people willing defend it - including Ivy-League schools. If there is to be the citizen-soldier, then all 'institutions of higher education', i.e. - colleges and universities - have to be open to training them.
Even the Royal family of the United Kingdom serves; and it is fitting that those who are being given so much by this republic have an opportunity to serve this republic.
"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
-Franklin Roosevelt
I think the only time this would have happened was in world war two, by and large
Say what you want about John Kennedy, but gasoline fueled plywood torpedo boats was not a safe duty. The officers who led from the front at Gettysburg did not choose safety, and Teddy Roosevelt could have remained as a navy under-secretary.
It once was a duty, here and elsewhere in the West, for the best to take up arms and serve. Now, we leave that (with exceptions) to the sons and daughters of teachers and milk-men.
One should be concerned about a day when those sons and daughters decide that they are better fit to run things than the callow aristocracy that has rejected the profession of arms.