America Serves

Err · Post by **Err** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:04 pm

"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."

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 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. 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.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:09 pm

Wow, just wow. I can see the logic, but I just can't see it happening.

TheSovereign · Post by **TheSovereign** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:41 pm

thanks to all the idiots who voted for this guy

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:43 pm

but I just can't see it happening

Me either. The guys got way too much on his plate to even try to get something that huge going. It'd realistically take yet another new branch of government just to get the ball rolling.

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:17 pm

and thats exactly what he wants...government to run us all.

TheSovereign · Post by **TheSovereign** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:20 pm

nexus_7 wrote:and thats exactly what he wants...government to run us all.

do i need to quote my above post? seriously?

Shadow250 · Post by **Shadow250** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:08 pm

this is a capitalist nation, i wont work for free.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 1:23 am

Apparently we haven't gotten to the point of the Star Trek ideology of working to better ourselves...

Err · Post by **Err** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:27 am

They've already changed the text on the link I posted above.

America Serves

"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."

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.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:40 am

Whew! I knew that the original wording couldn't be for real.

Shadow250 · Post by **Shadow250** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 12:04 pm

working to better ourselves doesnt pay the bills unfortunatly. otherwise id be all for it.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 6:52 pm

great in theory...but unfortunately it would/will just be another program that people will abuse. i can see lots of people signing off on hours "worked" for kids to get the college funds, etc...but never doing anything at all.

RubberDuckie · Post by **RubberDuckie** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:54 pm

this is a capitalist nation, i wont work for free.

Ditto

smb · Post by **smb** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:29 pm

wasnt this called "welfare" back in the 50's?

Err · Post by **Err** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:56 am

Although they removed the original wording form change.gov, the plan to require kids to serve is not dead. Look into Rahm Emanual, 0bama's Chief of staff. He has been quoted from his book The Plan: Big Ideas for America as want to require service:

It's time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service. ...

Here's how it would work. Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They'll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we're hit by a natural disaster. These young people will be available to address their communities' most pressing needs.

So what if the kids refuse. Are they going to be dragged off and forced?

Here is an interview he gave in 2006 to the NY Daily News:

SMITH: I meant to ask you about the universal service piece of the plan. Can you tell me about it? Like, how is this going to work? Are people going to live in barracks?

EMANUEL: Universal civil defense training…I think he had it at 18, but we were saying somewhere between the ages of 18 to 25, you will do three months of training. You can do it in your(inaudible). Some point in college you can do just that. There can be nothing wrong with all Americans having a joint similar experience of civil ...what we call civil defense training or civil service...some sense of service to country in preparation, which will give people a sense of what it means to be an American. We propose three months. At the end of the day someone says it should be four more. I’m not going to sit here and hold it up.

SMITH: I mean it's a lot more than the U.S. government asks of anybody right now.

EMANUEL: Guess what? We have a lot more challenges, so we are going to need a lot to do it.

SMITH: I mean I don't mean to get hung up on the aesthetics of it, but like uniforms...is it like Europe...people go absent

EMANUEL: If you're worried about going to have to do 50 jumping jacks, the answer is "yes."

SMITH: Are you kinda shifting the "country-esque" Army bases in the Summers? I mean... I wonder how it's going work. This is people's experiences. It's so abstract. Do you go nine to five in some course in a Red Cross building?

EMANUEL: The whole idea there is it will be worked on you can do it through your State-National guard could be the vehicle for that. The goal here wasn't to sit here and work on piece of legislation for ya' and all that, but that's one venue of doing it.

SMITH: I'm a little hung up on the Barracks.

EMANUEL: Is there a reason? Do you want to talk about it? Do you have Blue Cross Blue Shield coverage on this? Are you worried about this in some capacity?

SMITH: No, I'm just...just curious

EMANUEL: Rather than figure out if you take a train ride or a barrack, think of it this way: it will be a common experience, and you'll be prepared. God forbid there's a chemical hit, there's another terrorist act, or a natural disaster (which are coming more frequent), there will be a body of citizens who are ready and capable and trained. That's all you have to think about. We're all here for you, ok? It's a circle of love.