Opening:

• Was just visited by Henri Makembe. Told me they would be providing for interview with people but I’d have to keep it friendly. “If we make them mad then they won’t want to give any of the other bloggers time.” So… they don’t want me to ask serious questions. What a surprise.
• Have quoted Winston Churchill, Mother Teressa, Mahatma Gandhi.
• They show all these examples of service yet they all appear to be real voluntarism, ie no government involvement.
• “We are not here as Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, socialists or Green party members. We are here as Americans.” I appreciate the shout out but I’m here as a libertarian.
• “We are here today because of Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” Too bad they don’t wish to abide by the ideas contained in those documents.
• “Politicians get a bad wrap. Some deservingly. But there are all kinds of politicians who help America.”
• Being a citizen of the United States is the highest reward.
• If you googled “giving back” you’d likely find “Mike Bloomberg.”
• Bloomberg: New York City’s government school system improvement is an example for the rest of the nation.
• New York City is the city of service because William James who wrote The Moral Equivalent of War (intro by Jon Roland) advocating national service was born here.
• “We are the beneficiaries of those who give their lives to defend us.” Defending from the Koreans? The Vietnamese? The Iraqis? The Pakistanis? The Iranians?
• Bloomberg babbles on about global warming, “We are polluting the air we breath.” Yes… by breathing.
• “Service should be asked of everyone and should be open to everyone. So we are creating new programs.”
• “Democracy and capitalism hasn’t helped everyone…”
• George Bush: Asks everyone to spend two years or 4k hours helping out in a lifetime.
• Laura Bush: “People have more opportunities to volunteer through government programs.” Being incentivized by tax payers money is not voluntarism.
• Rolling Ridge elementary school gives it’s kids service journals and have made ’service’ party of the curriculum.
• “Children who learn the importance of service early are more likely to volunteer later in life.” Gotta indoctrinate them young.
• The program has moved on to personal stories from ‘volunteers.’ One from City Year, Civilian Conservation Corp, AmeriCorps.
• Admiral Michael Mullen: “the soldiers in Iraq are protecting our democracy at home. They are there because of what happened on 9/11.” I thought Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. How is it that our invasion of Iraq is protecting us?
• “There is no greater reward than working for something greater than yourself.”
• “Keep singing (God Bless America), keep waving (flags), and keep serving!” Yay nationalism/fascism!
• Obama, McCain, Dodd, Clinton have said they will cosponsor the Serve America Act from Kennedy and Hatch.
• The language used always refers to “the two candidates for the oval office.”
• Senator Hatch: “We want to help children who want to serve.”
• “Our efforts will start early in our classrooms.”
• “Service learning has shown to keep kids interested in school. So we are going to offer more incentives.”
• 61 million Americans volunteer without government incentives.
• “We will invest into a volunteer fund matched dollar for dollar from the private sector.”
• Want to create funds to help non-profit entrepreneurs.
• Offer older people “education rewards” to give to their children and grandchildren to pay for school.

Lunch:

• Duke will sponsor students to provide international service. 300+ in its first year.
• Big applause for mandatory service as part of college curriculum in Tulane University.
• Tulane plans to provide healthcare to New Orleans.
• Penn U will increase funding for service by 400+ students.
• 10 students will receive $20k grants to work with City Year at Bentley College.
• Tufts University wants to provide loan relief for graduates who ’serve.’ $500K / year
• The Declaration of Service is read by the founder (I think) and he asks for those who agree to stand. I didn’t see one person sitting except for press.
• Just talked about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. That it was the abolitionists who made that possible. In fact most abolitionists spoke out against the Emancipation Proclamation because it did nothing to free slaves.
• Speaks of Gandhi, abolitionists, etc. All who worked AGAINST government.
• “This movement is the biggest thing since the civil rights movement.” - David Gergen
• AmeriCorp represents a new role for government. Providing resources for non-profits, a public / private mix “that works.” “It’s about getting government to do what works.”
• “It’s not about the money. It’s about what works at scale.”
• “This is about mobilizing what people are already doing in the private sector.” If the private sector is already doing things why involve government?
• I just hear Arbeit Macht Frei ring in my head over and over as I sit listening to this propaganda.
• Gergen to Usher: “What are the incentives?”, Usher: “Scholarships…” couldn’t make out the rest.
• Gergen to Usher: “If Obama loses, young African Americans will obviously be upset. If that happens how do we still promote service?”
• Lt. General Benjamin C. Freakley: “We worry in the military about the fact 70% of the 17-19 y/o’s can’t serve.”
• Gergen brings up obesity.
• “We have to get into social networking.”
• Because there aren’t enough graduating from government school the military is bringing in people without a highschool diploma and getting them a GED and then a diploma.
• Gerben talks about how Republicans are hesitant of having the government involved.
• “Government should be an investor in what works. Non-profit is the fastest growing sector. We need to This isn’t big government or no government. This is down the middle. Ideology is not an issue.” This is from one panelist who starts non-profits.
• A woman of African decent questions Usher on the feeling many have that the African American community is losing their young men to drugs, obesity, prison, etc. He just talks in vague terms of “change”, “engagement”, “raising awareness”.
• Freakley: “We need to move from entitlement to empowerment.”
• Another questioner: “It’s a religious experience being here.”
• Freakley and non-profit starter: “We should have the same academias for civilian service as we do military service.”
• An older gentleman at the mike just gave the story of the Civilian Conservation Corp and how fast it was implemented and how many “boys” it put “in the woods.” “We can do it again!”
• Senator Dodd: He signed the Declaration of Service
• I just tried to ask Senator Dodd if he would ever support mandatory service but was unable to get my question in when competing with other press members.

Closing:

• The mic announcer: “We’d like to thank the Secret Service for their hard work this week… that’s some serious service.”
• Case Foundation: “The barriers between private, non-profit and public sectors need to be brought down.”
• Goldman Sachs is going to give $100 million to woman in 3rd world nations to improve business education.
• Provide a program to educate non-profits on how to run their business more efficiently.
• TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel: “The most famous words in the Declaration, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal… etcetera excreta.” Etcetera etcetera?! He just tossed away the most important component of the entire declaration. “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
• “from the consent of the governed. The reason I feel I’m just doing my job is that in a democracy the only you get the consent of the governed is by informing people. And informing to the best of your abilities about was it is important, what matters, the facts.”
• “It’s hard to not admire Hillary Clinton.”
• Clinton comes on stage and the place is going nuts.
• “America is the service nation.”
• She’s listing problems: climate, healthcare, housing, poverty, education. All conditions the government helped if not completely created.
• “The needs often outweigh the capacity.” Well the needs will always outweigh the capacity and the best way to create new capacity is not to have the government involved skimming off 70 cents on every dollar they steal.
• Place erupts when universal healthcare is mentioned.
• Talks about starting a public service academy. Room again erupts in applause.
• “We need more young people to consider public service a career.”
• 4 year, federally subsidized education for 5 years of service after graduation.
• “Many people will be retiring soon. From keeping our nuclear plants safe to tending national parks. We need people to fill those.” ?? While regulated… private companies keep nuclear plants safe.
• “Our Declaration of Independence was a declaration of service.”
• Jon Bon Jovi gushes over Clinton.
• Talks about all the private charity he’s done/help start. I note, no explicit government help.
• “I want to make voluntarism hip, make it the new ‘black.’”
• Dr. Mehmet Oz: “There is no legislation that can deal with health, it can be dealt with by going to the kids.” Yes it can. You can get rid of subsidies to corn growers and put import regulation on sugar. You can stop subsidizing bad foods. You can get out of the business of restricting people from getting the drugs companies which to sell to them when the customers want them.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about how government gets in the way of people wanting to volunteer. Laws in CA pushed by unions requiring all ’service’ to be done by the unions and be paid for it.
• The next president should create a cabinet position on voluntarism.
• “I’ll be back!”

Misc:

• I should note that with all the talk of environmentalism and saving the environment and conserving… I haven’t seen one press release printed double sided.
• A lot of Macbooks.
• A lot of iPhones.
• A lot of Obama supporters.
• Bipartisan support means not having principles.
• I wonder what the liberals here think of the fact that in more conservative and poorer areas of the nation give more to charity as a percentage of their income and spend more time volunteering their time.

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