The Debt

I had a conversation about national service this past week and it got me thinking about our obligations to each other and our communities.

I was in debt the day I was born. By pure luck, that happy event occurred in the United States. My parents were free to have me. This freedom was bought at a dear price by multiple generations before me. I owe them a debt for the tremendous benefits of our shared heritage.

I was well educated by wonderfully committed teachers in public schools. The prevailing culture valued hard work and moral behavior. Volunteers throughout the community played a role in my upbringing. There were little league coaches, scoutmasters, Sunday school teachers, and occasionally policemen, involved in my raising.

Compulsory military service ended in my teens, so after high school, the people of the great State of Texas paid for me to go to college and then heavily subsidized my graduate education at a world-class university. From there, I went on to live the American Dream of raising a family, doing a job that I love, starting a business, enjoying financial security, and loving the freedoms of life. That was only possible because of the liberties we enjoy in this country.

What has been asked of me in return for the gift of my heritage? Not much. Society asks that I obey the few laws we have that seek to restrain our more destructive behaviors and that I pay my share of our collective efforts through taxation. I do not believe that this is sufficient to discharge the debt I owe to my country for the opportunities I have enjoyed.

I reject the idea that if you “didn’t ask for anything from society” then you owe nothing in return. By luck of birth, you were granted an enormous advantage. If you knowingly acknowledge that, then you can’t in good conscience ignore the debt you owe to your patrimony. We receive tremendous benefits from our collective history, and we have a civic obligation to recognize these benefits and to make an extraordinary effort to secure the future for those that follow. What are you doing to repay your debt?