Mandatory Service - a solution

A piece that I heard on NPR over the weekend brought an old idea of mine back to my consciousness.  I think the piece was on the Bob Edwards program on Sunday morning and he was interviewing a retired Army colonel who has recently written a book about the status of the country and the military.  This person is now a professor at a prestigious school out East, perhaps Harvard, I can’t quite remember and haven’t gone back to check.  Not that important to me.

His focus was on the difference in our Army between now and WWII and the Korean War times.  We had an Army created by the draft then, and prior, and everyone served, there basically few exemptions (even conscientious objectors had to perform alternate service).  The Kennedy boys served (one was killed and one injured severely); Ted Williams, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, flew fighter planes for four years; movie folks served; and, even a few years later, Elvis Presley was drafted and served two years.

The point was that the whole country was invested in the wars - everyone sacrificed and served.  There was a selflessness that existed and that created strength of effort and consensus.

Over the years we have become a selfish society.  Materialism reigns.  What is in it for me?  While individualism has many good aspects to it, such as creativity and independent thought, it has also tended to break down the existence and our sense of community.  We are so busy worrying about ourselves that we do not see the bigger picture and the needs of others who are lacking the basic protections and benefits of society.

This can go in many directions, but today I wish to follow up on the colonel’s thoughts alone.  He was proposing that we should not have an all-volunteer military force because what that basically does is exclude a vast majority of the population from participating in the nation’s defense and therefore the possibility of the ultimate sacrifice for your country.  With all of our injuries and deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think that in all of the Congress, there was one relative who served.  How many of the infamous top 1% do you think has served or is serving?  Even how many of the shrinking middle class do you think has volunteered for service?

Since such a small part of our people serves, only a small part cares.  And, since that small part is generally the lower economic folks, they have hardly any political clout.

I agree this is a problem.  But we have many service needs in addition to the military.  I have been in favor of mandatory service for all persons at the age of eighteen for many, many years, but of course I have no particular forum from which to advocate.  So today I do that here.

Mandatory service at eighteen, for two years, can be good for all of those young people and for our country.  For young folks, it provides an opportunity to serve others, to mature and recognize that there are many needs in our communities.  It can provide employment, training, empathy, stability, different experiences, a chance to interface with others of different backgrounds and values.  For the country it can create a better sense of awareness in its citizens, a closer feeling of community and responsibility, a source to provide services to all citizens at a lower cost, and having a citizenry that is invested in improving the country and holding its decision-makers responsible.

Everywhere there is a need; there is an opportunity to serve.  We have had Volunteers in Service to America for many years, the Peace Corps, Teach for America, Project Head Start, and other organizations designed to help our citizens and citizens of the world.  During the depression, Roosevelt started many such organizations, such as the CCC and the WPA's Federal Art Project, to help people and communities.

We do not have a Great Depression today, but we do have unemployment that is much higher than it has been for many years.  One segment of our society, our youth, has suffered such that the future of our country and its work force is threatened. 

I think that mandatory service will help young folks mature and have empathy, but it also will provide work, wages, and skills for many.  It will also provide a sense of pride and worth.

Like all things today, there are no simple answers or easy ways to implement such a program.  But it is worth starting and working on until completion.

I will write more later.  What do you think?

Take care.

Pathetic Republicans

The Republicans are just playing a game of brinkmanship for no particular purpose except for politics.  Is there any other reason that they would refuse to extend the payroll tax reduction for two months, let alone a year?  And why are they not agreeable to extend unemployment benefits when we still have about 9% of the workforce without work?

I am really surprised that they will not approve the extension of the payroll tax exemption as it does apply to the top 1%.  Don’t they think that this continued reduction would help that elite group continue to provide all of the job creation that they have been providing over these last months?  Hasn’t the unemployment rate just tumbled from being at 10%?  If it continues for just a few more months perhaps we would have a jobs surplus!

Or perhaps the Republicans are not for the reduction because it does apply to everyone.  If it just is extended for the top 1%, then they will gleefully pass it?

Unemployment insurance benefits.  The extension is necessary because we have so many folks out of work and there is no easy solution to putting them back to work.  The problem is not that this considerable part of the work force is lazy or is not looking for work.  It is because, in large part, because manufacturing jobs have left this country.  It is also because a different type of education and training is needed for the jobs that are here. 

We need a national effort to meet the educational needs of all Americans in light of what the job market is and will be.  We need to be able to compete in the world market and not try to put up trade barriers all over.  We need national leadership in this area rather than a party than only seems to say that the answer to all of our problems is to cut spending.  Ridiculous!!!

More food for thought.  Please think and do something to help.  Call, email, and write your elected officials. Tell them you want plans and efforts that will start addressing our problems, not actions that just benefit their re-election funds and the pockets of the top 1%.

Take care.