Tars
05-27-2008, 08:36 AM
Hopeful signs of a new direction for national service to the United States:
By EJ Dionne in the 5/27 Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601741.html).
Excerpts:
"The reaction of too many progressives to patriotism is "automatic, allergic recoil," say two young Seattle writers, Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, in their important book "The True Patriot."
...
"As Liu and Hanauer and Roosevelt suggest, anyone who enters into a serious discussion of patriotism is required to offer more than bromides about love of flag and of country. Patriotism has to involve definitions, commitments and actions.
Obama already has the template for moving the debate in this direction. In December, he gave one of his best, and least noticed, speeches: a call to national service. The policies he proposed include a doubling of the Peace Corps (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Peace+Corps?tid=informline) and an expansion of the AmeriCorps (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/AmeriCorps?tid=informline) program from 75,000 to 250,000 slots. (President Bush (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=informline), by the way, deserves credit for saving AmeriCorps from the hostility of some in his own party.) Obama would link his $4,000 tuition tax credit to a service requirement."
...
(Christopher) "Dodd says he always explains his decision to join President John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps by saying, "The president asked me." He wins nods from youthful audiences when he says, "Let me tell you what it was like to be young, to be an American and to be asked."
Dodd was campaigning for Obama in South Dakota last Friday when he spoke with me, and he seems to have gotten this message to his candidate. Pinch-hitting for Ted Kennedy (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Edward+M.+Kennedy?tid=informline) as the commencement speaker at Wesleyan University (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Wesleyan+University?tid=informline) on Sunday, Obama revisited the themes of his December speech and explicitly renewed JFK's call, promising that "service to a greater good" would be "a cause of my presidency."
By EJ Dionne in the 5/27 Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601741.html).
Excerpts:
"The reaction of too many progressives to patriotism is "automatic, allergic recoil," say two young Seattle writers, Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, in their important book "The True Patriot."
...
"As Liu and Hanauer and Roosevelt suggest, anyone who enters into a serious discussion of patriotism is required to offer more than bromides about love of flag and of country. Patriotism has to involve definitions, commitments and actions.
Obama already has the template for moving the debate in this direction. In December, he gave one of his best, and least noticed, speeches: a call to national service. The policies he proposed include a doubling of the Peace Corps (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Peace+Corps?tid=informline) and an expansion of the AmeriCorps (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/AmeriCorps?tid=informline) program from 75,000 to 250,000 slots. (President Bush (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=informline), by the way, deserves credit for saving AmeriCorps from the hostility of some in his own party.) Obama would link his $4,000 tuition tax credit to a service requirement."
...
(Christopher) "Dodd says he always explains his decision to join President John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps by saying, "The president asked me." He wins nods from youthful audiences when he says, "Let me tell you what it was like to be young, to be an American and to be asked."
Dodd was campaigning for Obama in South Dakota last Friday when he spoke with me, and he seems to have gotten this message to his candidate. Pinch-hitting for Ted Kennedy (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Edward+M.+Kennedy?tid=informline) as the commencement speaker at Wesleyan University (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Wesleyan+University?tid=informline) on Sunday, Obama revisited the themes of his December speech and explicitly renewed JFK's call, promising that "service to a greater good" would be "a cause of my presidency."