The increasing threat of national service
There is one theme rising above all others in this election cycle that really worries me. It isn’t the prospect of higher taxes and it isn’t the likelihood of the continuos irrational foreign policy and the complete blindness in the way we confront the radical terrorism and it isn’t the fear of deep recession. The issue that really makes me worried is the new call for national service and the notion that both, McCain and Obama, will welcome such development.
Don’t mistake the calls for national service with campaign populism, it isn’t. It is rooted deeply in both candidates core ideology and it is pushed by very broad and influential organizations. Wrap in a package of highly ideological and promises organizations, like the Time Magazine, lobbying , and preparing the public opinion, for enslaving broad portion of the population.
It is a unique moment for the idea of national service. You have two presidential candidates who believe deeply in service and who have made it part of their core message to voters. You have millions of Americans who are yearning to be more involved in the world and in their communities. You have corporations and businesses that are making civic engagement a key part of their mission.
Last September, our cover story “The Case for National Service” caused an outpouring of interest in and support for citizen service across the country. This year, in addition to publishing another issue on the idea of service, we are convening–along with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and with presenters AARP and Target–a national bipartisan summit in New York City that will bring together hundreds of leading Americans to plan and lay out a bold blueprint on citizen service. The event will start on the evening of Sept. 11–that solemn anniversary seemed an appropriate time to launch this effort–and the meeting itself will occur the next day, Sept. 12. The summit will also be the first major public event for ServiceNation, a national campaign of more than 100 organizations–ranging from AARP to the National Council of La Raza and Habitat for Humanity–that collectively represent some 100 million Americans. My co-chairs at the summit will be Alma Powell, Caroline Kennedy, Carnegie president Vartan Gregorian and AARP CEO Bill Novelli. The summit will be opened by New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, who himself is an exemplar of citizen service, and will be closed by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is the first governor to create a cabinet post to oversee service and volunteering.
The great American promise to protect “Life Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness” is being in direct attack since national service is neither life and liberty nor the pursuit of happiness. In a big push to eradicate the American promise those organization calling for to transform the American society to a big labour camp with forced labor prisoners as a condition for citizenship, which is their right by nature.
There is one hope, however, that despite the growing popularity and the willingness of many americans to put their head under the harness of slavery this idea will not pass. The only hope is that the supreme court will not allow legislation that is, by its nature, in direct contradiction to the 13th amendment:
Tags: Collectivism, Individualism, Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, McCain, National Service, Obama, The 13th AmendmentSection 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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