The concept of national service is for me a no-brainer because it is a great way to give something back to the U.S. and even our erstwhile friends overseas while receiving valuable training and experience in return. I suppose the very fact that it makes such sense is why we haven't heard much about it during a presidency that has made as its centerpiece a war that has bankrupted the national treasury and for which it has asked no one to sacrifice.The first and subsequent times I heard Barack Obama on the stump this year he spoke at length about national service being a centerpiece of his presidency, and while he remains short on specifics, there is much to like in his plan, which he will roll out in a speech later today:
* Encourage national service to address the great challenges of our time, including combating climate change, extending health care, improving our schools and strengthening America overseas.The devil, as they say, is in the details, but Obama at least has some real-world experience as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side and stint heading Project Vote, which his campaign says helped register 150,000 new African American voters in Chicago.
* Expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and double the size of the Peace Corps.
* Integrate service learning into schools and universities to enable students to graduate college with as many as 17 weeks of service experience under their belts.
* Provide new service opportunities for working Americans and retirees.
* Expand service initiatives that engage disadvantaged young people and advance their education.
* Expand the capacity of nonprofit organizations to innovate and expand successful programs.
* Enable more Americans to serve in the armed forces.
2 comments:
In 1968-1969, the national high school debate topic was:
"Resolved, that the United States should adopt a policy of national service by all citizens."
With my intrepid debate partner Tad Barclay, I trained to argue this question from either side. As I remember, The Ripon Society provided huge decks of pre-printed research citation index cards; so Republian "framing" predates Lakoff by quite a bit.
I like the idea of a national service mitzvah merit badge, so to speak.
I think that, to fulfill their mandatory statutory national service, everyone should read Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac once each year until cognition; that's what I think.
Everyone should also read Ursula K. LeGuin's incredible The Dispossessed as a service to themselves. And The Telling couldn't hurt.
My college required 15 hours of community service per semester in order to graduate and it became a habit that has stuck with me throughout my life.
I think that Obama has a real chance to motivate young people, especially, to get involved in their communities and in their world - to make service a habit and a fact of their lives. I hope that he takes it.
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