Just one more reason to hate Philadelphia
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.
“I have always supported mandatory military service, but it should be for all with no outs”
I can think of absolutely no reason why, unless the Republic was in serious existential danger. The rest of the time, I say, “No to slave armies!”
I stopped listening to his show once he decided that Obama had a better plan to “kill” bin Laden and thus voted for him in spite of his socialist agenda. We’ll get all of the socialism and none - mark my words NONE - of the aggressive anti-terror bullsh!t Obama hypnotized people with.
Now Smerconish is getting syndicated. Good lord - a deal with the devil.
Everyone should be forced to live in Cuba as an average citizen for a year, then, if they want to return, take a course in U.S. Constitutional Law.
Illegals would be exempt. As a result, they would fill a lot of the private industry jobs vacated by mandatory service people.
Ain’t life in a Single Party State wonderfull?
Just one more reason to hate Philadelphia
Here’s an idea: how about they “serve” by going door to door collecting guns? Or write down all those houses that have crosses hung on the wall?
I am all for compulsory slavery, as long as it’s restricted to registered democrats whose annual income is over $110k a year and have given at least $200 or more to the Obama campaign.
Come and kill me, ‘cuz my time isn’t free unless I say it is.
It’s called involuntary servitude and it’s unconstitutional.
But it is nice to know how you feel about those men among boys that stormed the beaches of Normandy.
“Not a fan of universal registration - especially as it applies to community service? Let’s insert an economic quid pro quo into the equation”
Why? Why would we choose to provide an incentive for unecessary and unproductive work? We already have the Welfare State to induce people not to work.
All those promoting "service" and spending a day handing out soup in a homeless shelter should be forced to write what you said on the blackboard 100 times - Colin Powell included. You are absolutely right. Somehow liberal do gooders have convinced themselves that it is better to do low value volunteer work than valuable productive work.
So we see the spectacle of normally highly paid, productive people dishing out food in a cafeteria for the homeless, or picking up trash, or stapling together papers at an elementary school. What those people should be doing is whatever they do best, because that is what really helps society. And the homeless shelter should hire one of their residents and let them hand out the food. How is it better for people that don't need the work to take a job away from the poor homeless guy so they can feel good?
Even from the point of view of the government it is a waste of resources. The $80.00 per hour engineer stapling papers at her daughter's kindergarten costs the government something like $12.00 per hour in lost taxes. For that amount you could hire somebody to do the work.
“It has nothing to do with slave armies. It has to do with doing away with welfare.”
You can do away with welfare by doing away with welfare. No need to do so by engorging the ranks of the state, which is a benefit to no one, outside of times of national emergency.
The left’s plans always involve forcing their will on every one else. Nothing new here.
“But it is nice to know how you feel about those men among boys that stormed the beaches of Normandy.”
In my book, Pearl Harbor constituted a national emergency. Even so, yeah, I prefer a volunteer army. My grandfather voluteered and stormed the beaches of Normandy.
“Here’s a pile of loot in this bank account ready to pay for your college. All you have to do is ‘volunteer’ a year to get at it.”
Sick, sick, sick, twisted lies.
Don't worry. Obama is Lincoln reincarnated. Those Hip Hop thugs will be able to buy a replacement, just like the rich did for quite a while in the Civil War.
One year in the military is almost enough to start knowing what you are doing. Smerconish just wished for the military to be gutted, in practical terms of readiness.
I’ll never let my children participate in a “year of service” for these freaks.
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