Posted on 01/18/2009 12:14:09 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Thirty years ago, future U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford led the committee that concluded that year-long mandatory civilian-service programs were politically infeasible. Wofford, however, did not give up on the idea. And as the nation prepares to mark tomorrow's annual Martin Luther King Day of Service, maybe what was infeasible then is workable today.
What's changed? The economy, for one thing. Consider City Year.
City Year corps members, young adults ages 17 to 24, volunteer for a year of service in cities throughout the country - usually in public schools - and receive a college scholarship in return. It was described to me as an "urban Peace Corps" by David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast, which is a community partner of City Year.
Cohen also told me something else of interest. With the economy in the tank, and the end nowhere in sight, City Year has seen its applications increase threefold in the last year. Which got me thinking.
Maybe our economy would be well-served using a portion of the $800 billion-plus recovery package for mandatory service programs.
We know that the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent in December, and the biggest jump came among workers ages 16 to 19. Their jobless rate is 20.8 percent, up from 16.9 percent in December 2007. The rate among 20- to 24-year-olds is 12.1 percent (it was 9.2 percent the year before). By comparison, 6 percent of workers ages 25 to 54 are out of work today.
Granted, the unemployment rate for younger workers is traditionally higher than that of the rest of the workforce. But we don't have to ignore its continued rise, especially when there is a worthwhile alternative.
Here's what else we know: Time magazine reported that more than 61 million Americans accounted for 8.1 billion volunteer hours in 2006 - numbers that have been on a steady rise for 20 years.
Long before he was president-elect, Barack Obama advocated expanding AmeriCorps and doubling the Peace Corps. "This will be a cause of my presidency," he said back when the unemployment rate was a relatively tame 4.9 percent. John McCain, a man who knows something about service, has struck similar notes.
Then, there's the e-mail I received last week from Arianna Huffington, who is urging her Huffington Post network of bloggers and pundits to "leverage your following" by signing on for a specific commitment of service and urging readers, viewers and listeners to do the same via a newly developed Facebook application.
The point? Many young people need jobs, the nation is buzzing with calls to service, and Americans are willing to listen. So why not up the ante by offering service programs backed by the federal government?
Many years after initiating this discussion, Wofford shared with me his current vision for how it might work:
"I want to see a year or more of full-time, active-duty citizen service, either in the military or civilian service, become a common expectation of young people, and favor a system of universal registration at age 18, with a lottery draft to fill the needs of the armed forces if voluntary recruitment is not adequate, but with a civilian-service option for anyone whose number is called," he told me this week.
If you want to serve the country in the armed forces, that's an honorable choice. But if not, how about something like City Year?
Not a fan of universal registration - especially as it applies to community service? Let's insert an economic quid pro quo into the equation. Tying service to college loans is one proposal.
I also like the idea of granting each American baby a sum of money to remain untouched (and earn interest) until he or she turns 18 or 20 years old. If the young adult fulfills a year of service in the military or an organization such as Teach for America or City Year, he or she can access the fund to help pay for college or start a business. If not, the federal government gets it back.
That way, the program isn't mandatory. But it is more viable - for both the country and its citizens.
And given the state of the economy - and, perhaps more significantly, the pessimism it pushes out into America via newspapers, radios and television - we can use all the viability we can get.
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Michael Smerconish's column appears Thursdays in the Daily News and Sundays in Currents. He can be heard from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays on "The Big Talker," WPHT-AM (1210). Contact him via www.mastalk.com.
More compulsory volunteerism.
What a twit.
Civilian security corps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46t_nrySg4
Don’t forget Brown Shirts, concentration camps, and re-education camps. I’m sure American Liberals would support those plans until they’re led away.
Furthermore, someone has to pay for this ‘free’ year of service. Those ‘free’ volunteers have to eat and have a place to live.
I certainly don't mind "giving to" people who I deem are worthy, but I am certainly not "giving back" anything.
House one with each member of the US Congress and DNC.
FU Smerc.....you sissified Hussein water-boy.
And some folks believe Michael Smerconish is a conservative.
LMAO
Greater service would be starting a business, getting married, getting a degree. This libs really want us all out on the roads picking up trash like we were convicted of a DUI.
How does that help “society”?
What an idiot.
It is a recruitment mechanism to build up the equivalent of Hitler’s Brown Shirts -— they later became the foundation for the Gestapo and the SS.
This sentence alone tells me that Smerconish is a complete ultra-moron. Someone, anyone show me where in the Constitution it says the government has the right to confiscate from one person to "grant a sum of money" to another, simply because they are born.
Things are going to get much, much worse before they get better.
How about one year of service in a civilian militia, doing everything in our power to battle the federal government, protect the US and regain our stolen liberty. Would that count?
Michael Smerconish is just another mind numbed Obama supporter. If he were a true conservative, he would have never considered voting for this fraud.
I would rather see my kids volunteer to do things like go on mission trips and become active in our Church, not be forced to “volunteer” to do who knows what and get indoctrinated in the process. I seriously doubt that doing God’s work and actually helping people with their spiritual as well as their physical needs will count as “community service” in the lib’s minds, however.
After all these years of hearing how Republicans are going to “bring back the draft”, we see it in full bold print from a Democrat controlled government.
I wonder how many 18 year old wannabe Hip Hop stars are going to be thrilled with their “mandatory service”?
And by the way “mandatory service program” is a fancy way of saying “Slavery”.
One interesting thing, though. We live in a conservative area and most of the teachers are that way as well. It turns out my form was the only run returned that first day. The regular teacher read what I wrote and said "Everyone should say NO!". So there is some hope in rural areas such as mine.
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