If these two institutions can co-exist, maybe there's hope for the rest of us:
Harvard University announced Thursday that it will bring the military's Reserve Officers Training Corps program back to campus after more than 40 years.
Harvard President Drew Faust and U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus will sign an agreement giving "full and formal recognition" to a Navy ROTC program later this year, the Cambridge, Mass., university said in a statement.
Harvard's move comes nearly three months after Congress voted to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited openly gay people from serving in the military.
Maybe it will take, maybe it won't. Many of the universities that banished ROTC "in protest of the Vietnam war" didn't rush to reinstate it after the war ended. They just didn't like the military, its culture or its mission. "Don't ask, don't tell" was just another excuse.
But. It's not healthy for the military or the country for our soldiers to be seen as an isolated group. There needs to be more interaction between the military and diverse segments of American society. So I hope this works.
