Walking the civic talk after Sept. 11

Civic leaders have reinforced our civic attitudes through images (of the attacks themselves, or the Advertising Council's "I am an American" campaign that effectively celebrates multiculturalism) and symbols (like President Bush's visit to a mosque). These images matter: Consider the potential consequences had FDR visited a Shinto shrine in 1942.

But images, without institutional change, can't create civic watersheds. Civic impulses regularly appear after national crises, and just as regularly, except for World War II, dissipate if the moving images aren't translated into civic action. World War II, however, enduringly molded the "Greatest Generation" who all their lives voted more, joined more, and gave more. These habits were forged through great national policies and institutions (such as the GI Bill) and community-minded personal practices (such as scrap drives).

What institutional changes ought we make today? President Bush's plan to seek $1 billion for the USA Freedom Corps is a bold first step. He hopes to galvanize Americans willing to serve through an expanded AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Peace Corps as well as a newly established Citizens Corps to help local communities prepare for threats of terrorism.

More could be done. We should exhort Americans toward energy independence, ending our need to prop up unpopular mid-East regimes. Given young Americans' greater receptivity to political participation than they have shown in years, educational and political leaders should seize this moment to encourage youths' engagement in political and social movements. The grass-roots movement to restore the Pledge of Allegiance in American classrooms advocates fine symbolism; but the time is right to introduce a new, more activist civics education in our schools as well.

Americans today, our surveys suggest, are more open than ever to making people of all backgrounds full members of our national community. Progressives should work to translate that national mood into concrete policy initiatives that bridge the ethnic and class cleavages in our increasingly multicultural society.

Finally, community activists should recognize that wartime mobilization can also spark social justice and racial integration, much as the 1950s civil rights movement partly emerged from World War II experiences.

• Thomas H. Sander is executive director of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America project at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Robert D. Putnam is Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and author of 'Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.'

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