America’s war on terrorism has gone a long way toward rehabilitating the idea of patriotism—even among the left. In the months since September 11, we’ve seen a tremendous outpouring of volunteerism and civic activism, plus a nationwide acknowledgment that citizenship has its obligations and that satisfying those obligations brings a sort of nobility to life.
There are even those who believe it’s time to establish some form of compulsory national service as a way of institutionalizing this feeling. 'In the media’s overly emphatic insistence that life has changed . . . it is hard not to read a desperate wish that life really change,' writes author Ann Marlowe in Salon.com, 'that we become a different, better people, more altruistic, more respectful of each other, and less worshipful of money and success.'
This is not a call for a new generation of military conscripts, Marlowe assures us, but simply for a way that young men and women can serve their country while they learn the value of citizenship, discipline, and diversity. The armed forces would be only one of a range of options, which might include everything from environmental protection and tutoring to fighting forest fires and reading to the blind. And unlike the Vietnam-era draft, everyone of a certain age would be expected to serve—regardless of economic or social background.
'The random mingling of young people of every background could do a great deal to help overcome the increasing fragmentation of our society,' she says. And a one- to two-year service commitment would create a rite of passage that many young men and women of all social classes are currently missing.
Marlowe suggests that recruits would go through a period of basic training that would emphasize physical as well as mental challenges, without the abusive extremes of a military boot camp. Brush-up citizenship courses would include study of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. The trainees performing at the highest levels in all these areas would get their pick of assignments.