By Jerry Phillips
Back in the early 2000s, I was employed as a contract special investigator for the United States Office of Personnel Management. My primary responsibility was to interview individuals who had applied for security clearance that was required for their employment. The majority of these candidates were young, recently enlisted military personnel who had experienced some questionable criminal or financial issue — none of the criminal charges were of a serious nature and the financial issues usually involved various delinquent debt.
While conducting these interviews, I discovered a common pattern of behavior in most of these young adults: They had all gotten themselves into some kind of trouble and felt lost. Most had come from broken homes and were on their own at a very young age; they often admitted joining the military primarily to find stability, security and discipline in their lives. They needed someone to make decisions for them. They were smart enough to know that if they continued “life” on their own, they were headed for more serious trouble.
Although it was not my job to recommend approval or denial of their security clearances, I believe most of these young adults received those clearances and continued on with their basic and specialty military training and career. Over time, I would sometimes run into a few of these individuals who would remember me. I was amazed at their transformation into disciplined, mature, responsible young adults.
When I initially began conducting these interviews, I couldn’t help but think, “Why are we wasting taxpayer dollars on trying to discipline and train these incorrigible teenagers?” However, I soon realized that the money and time spent on their basic training was invaluable. These kids were getting a second chance and receiving the disciple, guidance, and training that they never received from their parents.
As a result, I began thinking more and more about all of the constant and endless violence associated with the gang lifestyle in our cities. Every night on the news we hear about someone being shot and killed, smash and grabs, car jackings, assaults and robberies.
Children and young adults have no opportunity to escape the destiny of gang participation and dependency, ultimately leading to either death or incarceration which subsequently results in more violence. I can’t help but think of the lyrics from the Elvis Presley hit song In the Ghetto, which talks about this hopeless, endless cycle. All the suggested solutions (more police, better education, affordable housing, job opportunities) sound good, but they only treat the symptoms and fail to address the root cause and break that cycle.
From my perspective, the root cause of this endless cycle is a lack of family values, structure, and discipline. Throwing more money at the education system will NOT discipline the kids to attend and/or encourage them to achieve in school. Properly educating our youth consists of two equal core ingredients: education and discipline. One without the other is a waste of resources and will continue to fail. In the “old days,” a formal education was provided by the school environments and teachers while the discipline was provided by a combination of (two) parents, teachers, relatives, school faculty and even neighbors.
That being said, we cannot legislate or mandate family values and structure. To make matters worse, there’s no more help from teachers, neighbors or even relatives due to the threat of liability litigation and personal rights infringement fears. Single parents are on their own! However, we cannot just let these kids raise themselves or write them off; we know where that leads. We have to remove them from that hopeless, dead end environment.
Therefore, I am suggesting a partial solution to help break the cycle: paid mandatory military or national service. I’m not suggesting this because we need more soldiers. In today’s military world, more and more military activity is automated. If not mandatory military service, some type of mandatory national service to our country that incorporates a disciplined, goal-oriented and skill-focused “boot camp.” If it’s voluntary, it won’t work! The national service that I’m suggesting would provide the much needed discipline along with additional job and educational training. To put it bluntly, let the national service (boot camp) provide some of the parenting that some of these kids never got, or the chance at some directed education that they wouldn’t otherwise receive — and that’s just for the disadvantaged. Compulsory service would be a benefit for everyone. Another benefit would be an increase in national pride, civic knowledge, and engagement in the democratic process.
The naysayers might say “It’s too costly” or “Two years is a long time” or “My kid wants to go to college” or “We’ll end up with criminals in the service.” I haven’t done the math, but I’d bet that it would cost society far less for two years of national service than the never-ending costs we’re now paying for health, policing, housing, unemployment, child subsidies, wasted school funds and/or long term incarceration expenses — not to mention low election turnout and poor understanding of how our government works. Besides, what’s a better investment than a young person’s future?
We’re all now living a lot longer now, and two years of paid service to our country shouldn’t be too disruptive. Some may wash out and still end up in jail, and others will bemoan the constraints on their unrestricted mobility, but for most people it will provide a huge benefit. The vast majority of at-risk kids will benefit from the chance to become productive members of society. College-bound kids will get a greater appreciation of civil responsibility, and they can always defer their service for four years or more while they’re full-time students.
For the government, this brief compulsory national service would be an investment in our country’s future and a step towards greater civic engagement. It would not only provide young, underprivileged people with an opportunity to break the cycle and change their future, but it would also instill national pride in our country. It’s a win-win proposition.
Jerry Phillips was fortunate enough to have two wonderful parents and four mentoring siblings and 16 years of private education. He was employed as an IT manager in a major corporation for 31 years followed by 10 years as a federal government special investigator. However, his greatest achievement is being married for 50 years while raising three daughters who are now raising his six grandchildren.
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