http://online.wsj.com/…

Both John McCain and Barack Obama exhorted Americans to dedicate themselves to public service in an appearance at Columbia University on Thursday, to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11. But Americans need no lectures from politicians to participate in their nation’s civic life. They need them to stay out of the way. Between the two, Sen. Obama is far less likely to do so.

At first blush, the two candidates appear indistinguishable on the subject. Both have urged Americans to look beyond their individual, material pursuits and commit themselves to causes greater than themselves — Sen. McCain arguably even more aggressively than Mr. Obama. The difference is that for Mr. McCain this is a moral ideal. For Mr. Obama, it is a governing mission. “Making that call to service will be a central cause of my presidency,” he declared in an Independence Day address at the University of Colorado and elsewhere.

Mr. McCain certainly uses his bully pulpit to proselytize Americans about public service. But he more or less stops there, even repeatedly cautioning during the Columbia forum against federalizing public service, although that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t throw taxpayer money at some of his pet service projects. However, his Web site offers nothing near what Mr. Obama is proposing.

Mr. Obama has laid out a 10-page vision statement that includes virtually every program proposed by the left and the right in recent memory and then some. President Bush’s controversial faith-based initiative? He’ll keep it. President Kennedy’s Peace Corps? He’ll double it. Even Mr. McCain’s seven-year-old plan to raise a domestic civilian force to fight terrorism and triple enrollment in AmeriCorps gets a plug.

In addition, Mr. Obama would create several new corps of his own: a Classroom Corps to help teachers and students in underperforming schools; a Health Corps for underserved areas; a Clean Energy Corps to weatherize homes and promote energy independence. The last is separate from his Global Energy Corps, to promote low-carbon energy solutions in developing countries.

Mr. Obama calls all this his “Plan for Universal and Voluntary Citizen Service.” It might live up to its “universal” billing, given that it would prod Americans of all age groups — from preteens to retirees — to sign up. But as to its voluntariness, the plan will make generous use of Uncle Sam’s money — and muscle.

My coverage of national service and Service Nation can be found here.

I got in without any issues. Didn’t even need my FTL ID. The press packet had this as I walked in to the press room. I’m not seeing the release online.

KENNEDY AND HATCH RENEW CALL FOR NATIONAL SERVICE: “SERVE AMERICA ACT” WILL INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE FOR AMERICANS OF ALL AGES

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tomorrow, Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) will introduce new legislation, the “Serve America Act,” to expand opportunities for service for all Americans. The Legislation will ask 175,000 more Americans to give a year to service to address specific national challenges, thereby expanding the number of national service participants to 250,000. The legislation will also increase opportunities for individuals to serve at every stage of their life and will support nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions to our most pressing problems.

“Time and again we’ve learned that large numbers of Americans are ready, willing, able, and even eager to be involved in service, and that all we have to do is ask them to do so. The Serve America Act will ask. It will connect every generation through service, and enable them to help tackle a wide range of national challenges, from the dropout crisis that plagues our schools to the lack of health care in our neediest communities to the energy and environmental crises that threatens our planet,” said Senator Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees existing national and community service programs. “Many Americans are already answering the call to such service, by weatherizing homes, mentoring students, or working to bring clean water and life-saving vaccines to peoples in many lands. This legislation will dramatically expand opportunities for Americans will to devote a year or more to address such challenges. It will draw the talents and skills of every age group, such as expanding opportunities for young people to improve their communities, and enabling retiring ‘baby boomers’ to transition to second careers in public service.”

Senator Hatch said, “Volunteer service is the lifeblood of our republic. It brings out the best in people and strengthens our communities. Throughout history, Americans have stepped forward and volunteered to meet every challenge. Within each of us is a desire to help and serve our neighbors the world over; and yet, the hectic lifestyle we all live often crowds out our natural ability to give service. That is why my longtime friend, Senator Kennedy, and I are introducing the Serve America Act. This historic legislation will inspire and provide opportunities for civic-minded Americans to raise the bar of service and fulfill the destiny of the immortal words of ‘America the Beautiful,’ to ‘more than self their country love. And mercy more than life!’”

“America faces more challenges today than ever before. And new challenges require a new level of commitment. By harnessing the talents and efforts of the American people, faith-based groups and nonprofit organizations, we can empower more people, improve more communities and tackle more of our nation’s greatest challenges. That is precisely the intent of this bill, and I’m pleased to be working alongside Senator Kennedy to champion this important legislation.

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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.

http://www.time.com/…

At various times in American history, public service and private effort

went arm in arm. After Pearl Harbor, Rosie the Riveter and Uncle Sam exhorted people to help the war effort, and Americans responded. But since F.D.R., and especially since J.F.K.’s launching of the Peace Corps, national service has been seen by some as a Democratic or liberal idea. In the ’90s, Newt Gingrich argued that the rise of big government programs robbed people of their initiative to volunteer. After Bill Clinton signed the bill to create AmeriCorps in 1993, then Senator John Ashcroft called it “welfare for the well-to-do.”

But these days there is a growing consensus on Capitol Hill that the private and public spheres can be linked. Democrats understand the need to support programs outside of government; Republicans understand that voluntary programs can be helped by government. In his first State of the Union address after 9/11, President George W. Bush called for Americans to give 4,000 hours of service and established the USA Freedom Corps. One of the early critics of AmeriCorps, John McCain, has since become a devout supporter. “National service is an issue that has been largely identified with the Democratic Party and the left of the political spectrum,” McCain wrote in a 2001 Washington Monthly essay. “That is unfortunate, because duty, honor and country are values that transcend ideology…National service is a crucial means of making our patriotism real, to the benefit of both ourselves and our country.”

THE PLAN

So what would a plan for universal national service look like? It would be voluntary, not mandatory. Americans don’t like to be told what they have to do; many have argued that requiring service drains the gift of its virtue. It would be based on carrots, not sticks — “doing well by doing good,” as Benjamin Franklin, the true father of civic engagement, put it. So here is a 10-point plan for universal national service. The ideas here are a mixture of suggestions already made, revised versions of other proposals and a few new wrinkles.

1. Create a National-Service Baby Bond
2. Make National Service a Cabinet-Level Department
3. Expand Existing National-Service Programs Like AmeriCorps and the National Senior Volunteer Corps
4. Create an Education Corps
5. Institute a Summer of Service
6. Build a Health Corps
7. Launch a Green Corps
8. Recruit a Rapid-Response Reserve Corps
9. Start a National-Service Academy
10. Create a Baby-Boomer Education Bond

Voluntary? Really? How long would that last? How voluntary is the collection of funds to pay for all this proposed government expansion.

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John McCain:

Patriotism is deeper than its symbolic expressions, than sentiments about place and kinship that move us to hold our hands over our hearts during the national anthem. It is putting the country first, before party or personal ambition, before anything.

Barack Obama:

Instead of a call to service, we were asked to go shopping. Instead of a call for shared sacrifice, we gave tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans in a time of war for the very first time in our history.

And that is why I won’t just ask for your vote as a candidate – I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am President of the United States.

Just as we must value and encourage military service across our society, we must honor and expand other opportunities to serve. Because the future of our nation depends on the soldier at Fort Carson, but it also depends on the teacher in East LA, the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, and the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia.

As President, I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots, and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their efforts connected to a common purpose. People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve.

Asked? How about told. McCain’s looking to start another war or ten and likely a draft will be needed. Obama is looking to expand national services of all sorts and even if they aren’t giving me busy work they will be using their guns to make me pay for it.

Occasionally I’ll discover a political book at a used book store. My latest find is this book from 1962 by William J. Lederer.

William, or Billy as I’ve come to call him, wrote a book complaining about some major government blunders and the ignorance of US citizens during the cold war. What follows are some brief descriptions of these problems:

1. We gave money to the wrong people in Laos and now the people of Laos hate us and the communists are well liked by the locals.
2. We gave money to the wrong people in Thailand and it’s not being used correctly.
3. We give money to Chaing Kai-shek and his nationalist army in Formosa, but China is still red and now Formosa doesn’t like us.
4. We supported Syngman Rhee in Korea and now the Koreans hate us.
5. Foreign students come to this country and learn nothing about our culture because we don’t invite them into our homes. To top that off foreign students are usually sons and daughters of diplomats, not the common people we should be trying to reach.

Billy then goes on to name the culprits. He points out failings of the government, the press and US citizens. Finally in the last few pages he offers some solutions:

1. Reinstate the draft and force young people to serve in a diplomacy force. They will learn foreign languages and work in foreign countries. As a bonus they get to see the world.
2. Revamp the foreign student program so the government pays to have foreign, working class teenagers educated in the US.
3. Educate US citizens by having them become pen-pals with people from other nations.
4. Try to minimize the use of foreigners in government.
5. Begin a service by which common citizens can send telegrams to the president at a reduced rate.

This book has a good smattering of communist bashing, including repeated use of the term pinko, which brought a smile to my face. It also has some great quotes like:

Every man on the street and woman in the kitchen…

That being said, it seems fairly radical for it’s time period. I think if you could remove some of the government force used to implement these programs they aren’t all terrible ideas. Interestingly enough he does mention the peace corps once in the book, but doesn’t go into detail about how they wage peace.