Conscription
Wikipedia defines conscription as “a general term for involuntary labor demanded by an established authority.”
This is from President-elect Barack Obama’s official transition web site (This is a link to the original, cached version. See the update comment thread, below.):
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.
This sounds like conscription to me. I understand this is a well meaning plan, but as the saying goes: “The road to hell path to destruction is paved with good intentions.”
Update: The America Serves web site has been updated since my post and no longer uses the word require. It also includes details about refundable tax credits. As it reads now, Obama’s America Serves project is a substantially different proposition than outlined previously. I’ve updated my link above to hit the cached version. I’m not sure how long that will work.
As I noted in the comments, I think it’s fine for local school districts to include public service in their curriculum. I don’t believe the federal government should mandate it, especially for college. I’m all for public service, as long as it’s voluntary. I have volunteered (i.e. served) in the military and with various civic organizations. The experience was great and I encourage everyone to volunteer.
Don’t Whatcom County schools already require a senior service project, aka community service? Or at least some of them? I get requests all the time for students to do projects at the theater. So, just like the threatened socialism, the conscription is already in place…
Comment by Jeff — November 7, 2008 @ 9:47
One senior service project is much different than requiring public service every year from middle school all the way through college. I think it’s fine for local school districts to include public service in their curriculum, but I don’t believe the federal government should mandate it. I beleive that’s especially true for college.
I’m all for public service, as long as it’s voluntary. I have volunteered, and served, in the military and with various civic organizations. The experience was great and I encourage everyone to volunteer.
Comment by Randy — November 7, 2008 @ 10:06
Ah, I see. This time I went and read the actual wording. You have changed it, and thus have changed the meaning. From my new reading of the actual words used, the goal is for all high school students to DO 50 hours of volunteering a year, and for all college students who DO 100 hours to receive tax credits/free tuition to a certain amount. That is highly different from conscription, wherein the conscriptee has no choice. The word REQUIRE does not appear anywhere on the Obama webpage you linked to. In this day of copy-and-paste, one wonders how that word got changed in your original post. The road to hell is not paved with good intentions. It’s paved with deceit. Check it out–they’re pretty specific about that in the Bible.
Comment by Jeff — November 8, 2008 @ 12:00
I didn’t change the wording. That’s an unedited copy-n-paste sentence. The web page has been edited since I put my post up. The word require was used and there were absolutely no details on the page about tax credits.
I don’t appreciate the not so subtle implication that I was being deceitful. The lack of consideration surprised me; I thought we knew each other better than that.
Comment by Randy — November 8, 2008 @ 1:50
Here is a link to the version of the page that was public when I posted. Robert Bidinotto comment’s on the airbrush job on the America Serves web site: “Anyone recall what the Soviets used to do to history books?”
Comment by Randy — November 8, 2008 @ 2:10
Jeff, I did check it out. I think the verse being alluded to is Matthew 7:13:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
That’s not hell; that’s the road that heads you toward destruction. Note that, in most Biblical references to hell, what is “pretty specific” is that you don’t traipse down a road to it. You get thrown in. (Matthew 5:27–30, Matthew 18:7-9, Luke 12:4-7) (I don’t see a way to hyperlink, so here’s a quick link to look them up if anyone wants to see how to get there: http://www.ibs.org/bible/verse/index.php)
I think the more applicable “hell” verse to this post is James 3:5-6:
“5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”\
Better one hug given in love than 1,000 Bible verses quoted without it.
And by the way, the Belmont Club also quoted change.gov while it still said “require” (posted on the same day as Cascajun): http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/11/07/the-body-politic/
Back to the main point at hand, I find it a tidge encouraging that something (practical reality, real responses, gravity?) motivated them to soften their stance. Quoting from a comment from “Leo Linbeck III” on another Belmont Club article:
“One of signs I will especially look for is “don’t blame me; it’s Bush’s fault.” Every President inherits a set of issues, some known, some unknown, some good, some bad. But the extent to which BHO positions himself as a victim of GWB, instead of the leader of the free world, will tell us a lot about his character.
Having won the battle in the world of words, he now enters the world of action.
The rules are different. Gravity applies.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/11/07/oh-lets-not-follow-the-money/
Comment by Kerstin Bailey — November 8, 2008 @ 4:35
In light of Kerstin’s comment, please allow me to rephrase my final sentence.
I understand this is a well meaning plan, but as the saying goes: “The path to destruction is paved with good intentions.”
Comment by Randy — November 9, 2008 @ 6:49