To Tim Zimmermann:

No serious proposals for mandatory service? President elect Barack Obama indicated on the recently launched Change.gov website that:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

That was present on the site till the other day. Now it reads:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

In a December 5th, 2007 post on Barack Obama’s website, still available, he said:

We’ll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we’ll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities.

Indicating that if local schools do not enact the service programs desired they will not receive the federal funding they currently get. Putting greater burden on the local tax payers therefore greatly incentives the schools to enact the requested programs. Given that individuals are required to attend school and would likely not be able to graduate without completing the service it seems to me safe to call it mandatory. Especially if it becomes required for private schools. Even if it were not since anyone who sends their children to private school or homeschools is still required to pay property taxes to pay for government school it is hardly a fair scenario.

Websites I referred to are:
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/12/05/obama_issues_call_to_serve_vow.php
http://change.gov/americaserves/

His response was simply:

Thanks, bile. You have found a lot of conflicting language. Let’s see what the actual proposals turn out to be….

Best, Tim
Tim Zimmermann
Director Of Communications
Be the Change, Inc.
cell: 703-850-0735
BTC: http://www.bethechangeinc.org
ServiceNation: http://www.servicenation.org
Blog: http://changewireblog.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bethechangeinc

No real answers. No real concern of the possiblity of mandatory national service.

According to Gateway Pundit the new site Change.gov said this as of November 7th:

As of today, November 10th, though apparently changed the 8th it says this:

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

In a December 5th, 2007 post to his website, still available, said:

So when I’m President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you’ll have done 17 weeks of service. We’ll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we’ll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities.

I’ve pointed this out to Tim Zimmermann given he recently said that:

Mandatory service simply does not make any sense. It is not a good idea, there is no infrastructure for it, no public support for it, no leadership support for it, and no money for it. Frankly, it is not something I spend a lot of time worrying about….

I agree it doesn’t make any sense hovever Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel think otherwise. It’s intelectualy dishonest to make these changes without an official announcement of policy change. It’s also dishonest to act as if this is not effectively mandatory. It’s the same trick used by the federal government to get the drinking age to be 21 and there be state laws for seat belts to be worn while driving. Only one state disobeys the federal government. New Hampshire. And that’s only for the seat belt request. Should a state refuse they will see their income tax dollars go out of the state and not come back in. At least a significant portion of it. It’s even worse in this particular case given the government mandates children attend school, continues to tax those who home school or use private schools, and not only would a school not receive federal funds but you can guarentee the local tax payers would continue to be taxed by the federal government at the same rate. If the locals don’t wish to pay higher local taxes and no reduced income taxes they’d have to comply meaning the children would be unable to graduate without doing the national service. Therefore it’s mandatory. And given the requirements for private and home schools imposed by the State it wouldn’t be surprising if they mandated national service for those children too.

It’s been about two weeks since I last sent an email to the ANSA.

To Whom this May Concern

My last two emails have gone unanswered by your organization.
I would appreciate a response to the questions I have listed below.

Editing your website is not an acceptable alternative.

Thank you.

As intended, I will continue to contact them until I receive a reply.

Laurie,

Thank you for keeping us honest.  We are in the middle of ironing the details of our relationship with ANSA.  Unfortunately, we are not responsible for the language on their website in the same way that they are not responsible for the language on our website(s).  I invite you to contact them if you have concerns about the content on their website.  And Of course, continue to email us should you have any questions/concerns about ours.

When it comes to coalition organizations, it’s a bit tricky.  We will  seek to be more explicit about the nature of our relationship before agreeing to have them as part of our coalition.  That being said, we aim to be a big umbrella organization when it it comes national service programs and volunteering.   If an organization supports our agenda as is, not as they interpret it to be, we are more than likely to have them on board because we believe the majority of Americans want to volunteer and should be given the opportunity to do so regardless of their political views, religious affiliations, race, sex, shape or size.

As for the funding, while you make some good points, on some level we are going to have to agree to disagree.   We are asking the federal government to fund the infrastructure that makes volunteering at all levels possible. Studies have shown for every $1 invested in national service programs the government gets $3 back.  We are currently working on several case studies to support these claims.  I would imagine that we will post them on our website once they are completed.   Moreover, a study by the Brookings Institute has demonstrated that participants in programs such as Americoprs and PeaceCorps are more likely to be involved in the political system and run for office after they leave those programs. Additionally, the federal government is not the sole source (or even the biggest source) of funding for the vast majority of the members in our coalition. In fact, private citizens such as yourself do support many of these organizations despite the currently financial hardships.  However, we believe that with slightly more help from the federal government, some of the successful  programs can be brought to scale and give more people the option of volunteering.

Now that you have a better understanding of Be the change Inc and the ServiceNation Campaign, I would like to ask for the opportunity to do a guest post on your blog where we could explain the goals of ServiceNation to your readership and field any comments/questions that we may have.  Of course this will not any way mean that you endorse our organization or the campaign,  but just giving your readership a chance to make up their mind based on facts, and have a chance to voice their concerns as you did.  I hope that you will consider giving us that opportunity.

Best,

–
Henri Makembe
Be the Change, Inc.
202.778.3553 (office)
www.bethechangeinc.org

Blog of Bile has given Be The Change, Inc. the ability to post. If they’d like, we will leave the account open so they may post whenever they desire.

After not receiving a reply from the ANSA to my first letter and after noticing them changing their website a few times, I decided to send them another email:

To Whom This May Concern:

I see that your website has changed to accommodate inquiries on:

• those that wish not to participate in mandatory service
• is mandatory service constitutional?

I have a few questions:

You fail to explain the consequences of not participating in mandatory service.

1. What do YOU think should happen if I or others chose not to participate?

You also say that mandatory service is constitutional, alluding to Supreme Court cases that held civic obligations over individual rights. Just because the Supreme Court has ruled in favor, it doesn’t make it constitutional: Roe v Wade, Jim Crow Laws, Brown v Board of Education. The Supreme Court has changed their opinion before.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution makes involuntary servitude illegal under any US jurisdiction whether at the hands of the US government or in the private sphere, except as punishment for a crime.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

2. What crime are you accusing me of committing and finding me guilty for?

I also noticed that your organization recently added that they do not prefer either means of national service; voluntary or mandatory.

Americans for a National Service Act supports whichever program works best and gets the job done.

I find the indifference of this statement alarming. Your organization’s vision for this country shows complete disregard for the individual rights and freedoms of the people that inhabit it–the same people that you wish to put into mandatory service if it is “determined” the best program available.

You also mention “gets the job done.”

3. What exactly is the end goal?

4. And what scale will you use to measure when your vision has been attained?

We also believe that in order to sustain that involvement there needs to be a system.

5. Can you elaborate more on this “system” and explain how it would enforce and sustain said involvement?

I’d like to thank you in advance for answering all my questions.

I’ll continue to send them emails until I hear back from them.
As far as I’m concerned, edits to their website are not acceptable responses to my questions.