Sixty-eight percent of eighth graders are not proficient in math. Eighty-five million people in this country have no or inadequate health insurance. Thirty-two percent of black men spend time in prison. In Afghanistan and Iraq, 4,507 Americans have died.
But the state of the Union is strong.
There's a way to fix our broken schools, to diffuse the health care crisis, to eradicate the impact of racism and to teach the average American what it means to maintain our desired way of life. In addition, we can alter the path of global warming, clean up our neighborhoods, reinforce our cracking infrastructure and inspire generations of Americans to come.
And say goodbye to enormous college tuition costs. In an evolving U.S. workforce requiring a higher level of training than ever before, college will be free.
The solution: a national service program. Not compulsory service, of course. It would be un-American to make people serve. Instead, we offer incentives. The incentive to join: a free ride in college. Before going to college, participants would sign a contract with the government guaranteeing a certain number of years of service after graduation in return for paid college tuition. Service projects would include road construction, medical research, teaching, law enforcement-you name it. At the end of the contract, the student is released into the general workforce with applicable skills and considerable experience.
Go back just 47 years ago. It was a time of tremendous anxiety. World War II had ended, but the specter of war still haunted the Earth. The Americans had been humiliated in the Bay of Pigs disaster. The Soviet Union had launched not only Sputnik, but now a man into orbit around the planet. It was a war between ideologies-capitalism against communism-and a Cold War between two superpowers. America seemed to be behind in both. It was a time when we took our national reputation in the international arena seriously. President John F. Kennedy was the face of the United States, and that familiar visage appeared in news media everywhere as the world waited with bated breath.
To the moon, Alice.
Back then, we didn't have hybrid cars or laptops or even pluots. But we had a will of steel and a desire to be the best in the world. In 1969, to the world's shock, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon-the "giant leap for mankind."
We didn't have to be limited to just one leap. But we've stopped jumping. The Soviets are gone and our biggest enemies hide in caves and release home videos every few months to local news networks. There's no reason for us to compete in a technological race because we're already in first place.
We set a goal. We achieved it. We were satisfied. And now we are complacent.
The same goes with race relations. We got a Civil Rights Act. We can eat together, live next to one another and marry each other. But we don't.
Health care. Best health care system in the world. When people with money are seriously sick, they come here. But those without money, even those who live in this country, often don't get any treatment until it's too late.
Education. We are home to the premier palaces of higher education in the world. But our students in middle school can't read or do math.
War. People die, we foot the bill, but most of us will never understand what it means to be stationed on the violent frontiers of our nation's international influence.
It's time for a call to arms. It's time for a leader to stand before the nation once again and ask us to save our country. A call for environmentalists to save the planet from global warming. A call for medical analysts to determine how to provide medical care to the impoverished American. A call for chemists and physicists and engineers to get us off fossil fuels. A call for teachers, attorneys, policy experts, construction workers, architects and urban planners to put this country back on the right track physically and ideologically. A call for military strategists and professional soldiers to get our men and women the results they work so hard for in countries seemingly steeped in chaos. A national service program.
And this call won't favor one racial group or gender over another. All will share in its rewards, and all will learn from each other. Finally, an equal playing field.
It can be done. Another giant leap. But this time, it won't be one man on a distant rock. It will be right here, starting with people our age.
We are always told that children are our future. It's time for that future to become a present. But program or not, the solution to the problem will always be the same.
The solution is you.
Elad Gross is a Trinity sophomore. This is his final column of the semester.
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