I think Trudeau’s Doonesbury today is a classic. I say this both as a child of baby-boomer parents and now the father of two children.
When I was 17 and graduating high school, my interests ran mostly towards international relations and politics. Even then I was a conservative. But when the military recruiters started calling, my mom was not happy and I knew it. My dad didn’t say anything one way or the other. They wouldn’t have stopped me but they may have seriously questioned my sanity.
In the end, I decided against the military for a number of reasons, including a genetic inability to hold my hands steady and a real lack of coordination. Still, I was interested, and who knows what would’ve happened had my parents encouraged me to join. (Actually, I do know. A friend of mine in the Marines put it to me bluntly: you’re the type that gets other soldiers killed trying to save you. He didn’t put it that nice, either.)
Now I have children. Right next to my son’s gym class is the recruitment center for the armed forces. Every Wednesday I see a group of young boys line up for the bus and I think, “Wow. Those guys are really young. I wonder what they said to their parents.”
Then I look at my son and I think, so what am I going to say when his turn comes? He doesn’t have my excuses. (The genetic hand tremor/uncoordination seems to have skipped him.) If I raise him right, there’s a good chance he might want to jump on the bus, too. Do I make him watch “Stripes” 100 times? Do I actively encourage him? Do I try to put his grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s military careers in perspective?
Being Catholic, I’ve often joked about my-son-the-future-priest and my-daughter-the-future-nun. But again, what if they choose those vocations? Shouldn’t I be proud? Shouldn’t I actively encourage them?
