Service Nation sponsors and supporters and additional information
Posted on July 31st, 2008 by bile Tags: America, American Red Cross, Bank of America, China, food, Greece, Home Depot, Home Depot Foundation, India, Italy, Mark Edge, National Peace Corps Association, national service, National Service Green Corps, Russia, U.S Census Bureau, U.S. government, United States, United States Marine Corps, USSR, weapons systemsCompanies and organizations which very likely won’t be getting my business in the future.
- Target
- TIME
- Home Depot
- Bank of America
- American Red Cross
- Big Brother Big Sister
- Boys & Girls Clubs of America
- Habitat for Humanity
- “I Have a Dream” Foundation
- National Peace Corps Association
- Special Olympics
- United Way of America
This is a subset of the list available at BeTheChangeInc.org and is organizations that stood out for me. AARP, Target, TIME, The Home Depot Foundation and Bank of America are sponsoring the 2008 Service Nation Summit in NYC on… wait for it…. September 11-12.
Mark Edge of Free Talk Live has contacted Target to get their official position but as of last night’s show had not received a response.
I noticed that Americans for a National Service Act is a member of the Service Nation coalition. Comments after the jump.
How is voluntary National Service any different than our current system?
This is a great question. One answer is if we don’t administer voluntary National Service properly there is no difference. Obviously, our intent is for that not to happen. That being said, voluntary National Service will create dozens of new non-military service opportunities for Americans in all stages of life. Also, Service Bonds, National Service American Dream Accounts, and educational grants create tremendous financial incentives for people to serve. If we also adopt ‘gentrification of the force’ for the military we will get an improved Armed Forces out of the deal. The functional side of all of this is we increase our capacity to preserve the environment, improve K-12 education, and respond to natural disasters. Also, remember that the initial purpose of voluntary national service is not to provide an end-state solution but to motivate millions of Americans to serve. This will begin the cultural transformation that will put us on the road to becoming a nation of universal national service. It also gives us the opportunity to assess the good and the bad of each program and make the necessary adjustments for the day when we adopt universal national service.
So they don’t want to enslave people…. yet. Universal national service is their end goal. So you get to choose your cell? You’re still a slave.
If I don’t believe in global warming why do we need a National Service Green Corps?
The short answer to this question is human overpopulation. At the end of the 21st century human overpopulation may be the most significant problem facing the human race. China and India are already there. As for the US, we’re taking on 1.3 million immigrants a year and at the present rate of growth the US Census Bureau expects us to be a country of 400 million by the middle of the 21st century. All of these mouths to feed exacerbate the Malthusian Dilemma. The way to stave off future instability and conflict over the competition for finite resources is conservation and innovation.
Sounds like Malthusian overpopulation hysteria to me. If they want to lessen scarcity they can get their precious government to quick paying farmers not to grow food, stop taxing wealth creation and allow the standard of living to increase.
Why do we need National Service when the voluntary military has been working just fine since 1973?
The answer is that the voluntary military is currently not working fine, not because of the quality of our military people but because there’s not enough of them. This numbers gap is the main reason why countries like Greece and Russia still don’t have all-volunteer forces, despite their desire to do so.
Do we need a larger military (particularly Army and Marine Corps)?
Yes. Of over 90 wars on this planet since 1945, only 28 have been conventional nation-state vs. nation-state conflicts. We foresee nothing but low-intensity, unconventional conflicts well into the future. That means less big, expensive weapons systems and more people. Big, expensive weapons systems can hurt people and break things, but they don’t protect populations. Soldiers and marines protect populations.
Won’t having more people in the military promote war?
No, that’s the beauty of it. By involving more people in government all segments of our society become better informed and develop a marked interest in NOT going to war. Simply put, the more people’s sons and daughters in the military, the less brash we are about starting wars.
It’s not working because the US government is the policemen of the world. These people want to continue that trend. Because you are in the military you won’t want to go to war? Hmm. Seems to me that USSR, Italy, German, etc. who had large military populations had no problem going to war.
10 Responses to “Service Nation sponsors and supporters and additional information”
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July 31st, 2008 at 5:38 pm
absolutely not.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Zat over on the FTL BBS has posted contact info for Target for those interested in letting them know how you feel about their sponsership of the Service Nation Summit.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
i sent an email to them through their “contact us” tab and pointed out that there was no mention in the FAQ’s for people who wished not to participate in the program at all. i asked them to address that issue for me.
ill let you know if i get a response.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:14 pm
It’s too bad to hear about Habitat caving in. I was considering volunteering my time but I don’t think I’ll be doing that now. Though, I’m sure it’s a hell of carrot that they’re being tempted with. It might be pretty hard to find an organization with the conviction to turn down ill gotten gains to help the needy. Unless “someone” starts one on their own and refuses any handouts from the government goons.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:14 am
Big Brother Big Sister - with a name like that…
August 1st, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Let me start by thank you for bringing attention to ServiceNation. Granted it’s not the kind of attention we wanted. Let me clear up a couple of things for you.
1. We do NOT in any way, shape or form support mandatory service.
2. We are NOT in any way affiliated with Rep. Rangel’s bill.
3. By National Service, we mean national service programs, such as Teach fro America, AmeriCorps and Peace Corps
4. Organization that join our coalition support our agenda as it relations to national service programs. That however does not mean that we support their agenda nor the method by which they achieve their agenda.
If you look at the blog post, none of the quotes come directly from the Be the change inc (www.bethechangeinc.org) or the ServiceNation (www.servination.org) websites.
@invisipunk, please continue to work with habitat. They are great folks. All we are trying to do is make sure that an organizations like habitat has the capacity to make sure people like you can volunteer in their free time.
@xyz - I did not receive an email from you (maybe you used another name). Please email me again at henri@bethechangeinc.org. We really want to hear from people who have different point of view. It’s not a conversation, if we are only talking amongst our respective camps.
If you have any more questions about serviceNation, please do not hesitate to contact us. also visit our blog to get a http://www.changewireblog.org to learn more about us.
August 1st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
August 1st, 2008 at 4:40 pm
@Bile, I’ve been in a email conversation with @xyz and s/he raised some of the same points you do.. so let me do my best to get answer you questions.
Part of the problem stems from the fact that the website quoted in the post is the wrong website. Be the Change, Inc. and ANSA are two separate organizations. We do not share staff, offices or resources. While it may be ANSA’s hope that National Service becomes mandatory, It is NOT ours.
our websites are following: http://bethechangeinc.org - corporate site;
http://servicenation.org - Campaign site for ServiceNation; http://www.changewireblog.org/ - our blog.
Continuing, We (as an Organization) do NOT believe in mandatory service nor do we think that participation in national service programs should be mandatory. It is clearly stated on our website (not the one quoted in the post). You can view that answer at http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/media/media_kit#natserv.
Our coalition is made up a 100+ national and local organizations. Each of these organizations have a their own mission, agenda, and goals (For a full list, please see http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/about_us/organizing). The overlap between these organizations is the the belief that there should be more volunteering opportunities available to ordinary citizens.
I will double check on our relationship with ANSA. However, to my Knowledge they are a member of our coalition and nothing more.
As for funding, many Americans already want to volunteer but are turned away every year. We are advocating the Federal Government to help fund these organizations to capacity so that they can handle the influx of volunteers. The Federal Gov is not the only source of the funding for the vast majority of these organizations. Most rely partly on Fed gov funding and party on private funding.
August 3rd, 2008 at 11:42 am
I thought I was quite clear in pointing out that ANSA and BTC are separate. However, as I pointed out, BTC is an affiliate of ANSA and ANSA is a member of the Service Nation coalition. If BTC is not an affiliate of ANSA then I recommend you publicly denounce the fact they advertise you are. Otherwise as I said I question the sincerity of all those involved with regard to mandatory service. This is a reciprocal situation. If what ANSA says is true then BTC must at one point sought them out to affiliate with a mandatory service supporting organization.
You are talking about people being turned away from federal “volunteer” programs. There are more then enough private volunteer organizations that would happily put them to work and they could just as easily go out an do it independently. To claim that there is any shortage of volunteering to do is fallacious. No tax payer money needs to or should ever be spent on volunteer programs.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
@henri
since you, bile and i are having similar conversations, id prefer to have the discussion happen on the blog (for simplicity’s sake).
we understand that ANSA and BTC are separate entities entirely, as it’s been mentioned a handful of times already. please follow the link that bile and i have provided for you, you will see that ANSA lists BTC as an affiliate (line 14).
you wrote in my email in reference to BTC supporting ANSA:
that sounds parallel to supporting pink pistols for their stance on gay rights, but distancing yourself from them because of their support of gun ownership.
i think bile raised some good questions, and i feel like you may be skirting around them by giving us press kit answers. can you answer them as “henri” and not “henri from BTC”?
thanks in advance.