To the Editor:
The pervasive societal impact of current United States military policy ties every American citizen, military or civilian, to the crimes committed in our name. Justice ought not to be the sole responsibility of service women and men. Living in a democracy means engaging dissenters and fighting actively for one's conception of justice. The individual that believes that they can just renounce the actions of the government thereby denying his or her responsibility for the actions done by those that represent him or her is both dangerous and immature.
Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs are not mandatory and will have little affect on students who do not choose to enroll.
While Brown does have a generous financial aid policy for working-class students such as myself, it falls short of creating true equality of opportunity between students of different socio-economic classes. Considering Brown is a private institution, its attempts at equality are praiseworthy and far above what most other similar institutions offer. My summers have been spent fulfilling my obligations for work-study payments, book expenses, travel expenses and housing and food for the summer, leaving me with little time to establish a career, work at the best — often unpaid, and not a viable option for a working class student — internships or networking and making business connections.
The United States Marine Corps, and I would imagine the other armed services, offered me financial security and a career outside the financial constraints that relegated me to a very specific, limited set of internships and jobs. Middle- and upper-class students can afford to let their critical stances to military policy harm the opportunities of their working class classmates. The Marine Corps may not have been my only opportunity, but it was the one I chose because it offered me real opportunities and financial assistance. It certainly was not an ideal situation, but I weighed the responsibilities out with the opportunities and freely came to the decision that becoming a Marine would benefit me.
My decision and my presence on campus does not discriminate against students who can afford to be more critical. I understand that, with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in effect, the Department of Defense practiced a policy that is completely irreconcilable with certain core values of the University, but that era is over, and to inaugurate the new one, a new class of men and women must step forward and bring the policy from de jure to de facto.
Most students gain nothing from having an ROTC program on campus, but for students such as myself, the benefits are real. Having an ROTC program at the University would make the process of becoming a service woman or man much more manageable and further lessen the financial burdens upon those who freely choose to join.
I am highly critical of United States military policy, but as a working-class student, the opportunities to make principled mandates are much more constrained than for higher status classmates. The world adheres to the ideals of no man or woman and we all compromise our highest principles to achieve small victories in carving out a world closer to our ideals. I was raised eating free food from the government. I have never been on a vacation. I do not have the money to go abroad and distribute aid to third world children. If you do, good for you. I honestly admire your philanthropy. I am fairly confident that this program will not pass. While the larger Brown community is washing its hands of the crimes committed abroad under their star-spangled banner, I will be doing my best to initiate a new era in an old and dusty organization. Until you are willing to renounce the advantages a comfortable and stable income has brought you in life, I would like to suggest that you withhold your judgment on a policy that will probably have no effect on your life at all.
Alexander Betzel '11
