HOW HE SEES IT Jenna, Barb, Uncle Sam needs you!

By BILL EARLS
HARTFORD COURANT
If President Bush is serious about the war on terror and respects the men and women in the military, he could do something no president in decades has done:
He could suggest that his twin daughters enlist.
Why not? For the last four years, the Bush twins Jenna and Barbara have enjoyed the life that children of affluence accept as their due: education at a good college. On Monday, Barbara graduated from Yale. Jenna graduated on Saturday from the University of Texas. Grad school is not immediate, and certainly they have more options than most people their age.
The military might be an option -- and a good idea.
For one thing, they could continue a family tradition. Their grandfather, the first President Bush, enlisted in the Navy after high school and flew planes into combat in World War II. Their father also served -- if not in a combat zone, at least he flew airplanes. Neither Bush daughter would have to become a pilot. Instead, the military could use the two liberal arts educations in intelligence, administration or operations.
A Bush enlistment would emphasize that this war needs men and women from every stratum of society, including the affluent.
Many people think that the military is an option mostly for blue-collar and lower-middle classes. They point to large numbers of minority recruits, a disproportionate number from poorer states and counties. One reason for the publicity surrounding the death of former National Football League player Pat Tillman, killed as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan in April, was that he gave up a lucrative career to serve -- which is very unusual in 2004.
FDR's sons
It wasn't always so. In World War II, affluent young men signed up by the thousands. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's sons enlisted, as did the sons of senators, congressmen and ambassadors. Were the Bush twins to enlist, it would do more for troop morale and recruitment than all the TV "Army of One" ads.
Enlisting might permit the Bush twins some personal growth. One problem with privilege is that people born to it often think that the whole world operates by the same rules as their household or school: Food will always be in the refrigerator, the car will always start, everyone gets interesting vacations, and most people are polite and deferential and want to do things for you. Not a bad way to grow up, but most of the world doesn't work that way.
And neither does the military. If Barbara and Jenna Bush would enlist, they would learn about a different world, one in which reveille goes off at 4 in the morning, and people dumber than you (or, in some cases, smarter) demand that you do push-ups, stand in line, shine your shoes. Someone has to stand fire watches, dish out mashed potatoes, clean heads, give up weekends, and there is nothing like doing it for a few months or years to make you appreciate what you have and the other men and women who do it.
Affluence breeds a form of insularity. Even Yale and the University of Texas, which advertise their diversity, are limited to people who can attend Yale and the University of Texas. There are lots of children of affluence in both places but not many Alabamans, Puerto Ricans, cowboys, children of mail carriers and cops. The military, as perhaps the most inclusive institution in the nation, has all of those. Being around that mix of people is, in its own way, an education as valuable as Yale ever provided.
Finally, if the Bush twins enlist, they will earn GI Bill money. In two or three or four years, when they apply to grad school, the federal government will pay for it.
By then, they'll be older, smarter, have a better sense of what they want to do with their lives -- and they'll make better teachers, lawyers or whatever because of it.
I can imagine President Bush saying, "Sign up."
X Bill Earls of Middletown, Conn., left Holy Cross College after a semester to serve in the Navy from 1961 to 1965, and he later used the GI Bill to earn bachelor's and master's degrees. He wrote this for the Hartford Courant. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.