Honor Those Who Serve

To the editors:

It was encouraging to see Bash’s piece on this page asking Harvard to “Bring Back ROTC Now.” Support for our men and women in uniform is particularly important at this time.

I take issue with Bash’s premise, however, that the best reason to lift Harvard’s ban is that it would encourage “progressive thinkers to...rise to the pinnacle of the military elite.” This may very well be an argument that can tip Harvard’s scale in favor of ROTC—that once we associate ourselves with the military, its backwardness as an institution will be more easily remedied. It would be better, though, if in debating the issue, Harvard administrators and students could show a bit of humility. Let us shift our focus away from the abundant gifts We of the Ivory Tower can bestow upon the unenlightened and instead fix our eyes squarely on the simple question of duty before us.

Does Harvard—which has benefited immeasurably from simply being an American institution—have an obligation, as President Lawrence H. Summers suggested in his inaugural speech last Friday, “to honor those who defend our freedom”? Or is it acceptable to treat those who defend that freedom as a secondary class engaged in the nation’s dirty work?

If we agree to the former, let us strive not to pollute a long overdue expression of gratitude toward those in uniform with the moral snobbery so characteristic of the meritocratic class.

Bronwen Catherine McShea ’02

Oct. 15, 2001