I went to the president elect's website, last week and shared my opinion that President Obama will continue to call on his constituency via email and the web - as he did in his campaign. We have a motivated country and a president that can mobilize us. Everyone should share their vision or story there, I think Obama's people will be reading this stuff to stay in touch with the real America.
Today I read the newly added "America Serves" tidbit:
"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 [also] encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55."
The service will be in various job corps ranging from Health Care, Clean Energy, and Classroom.
My cousin Patty said once told me that keeping her teens busy is a good recipe for keeping them out of trouble and I think President Obama's plan can keep a lot of teens busy!
Today I read the newly added "America Serves" tidbit:
"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 [also] encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55."
The service will be in various job corps ranging from Health Care, Clean Energy, and Classroom.
My cousin Patty said once told me that keeping her teens busy is a good recipe for keeping them out of trouble and I think President Obama's plan can keep a lot of teens busy!
Comments
Many children are already active in the community but I would guess most are not and would benefit greatly from such an endeavor.
I agree that tax dollars shouldn't pay for a "volunteer's" hours - it's oxymoronic - but perhaps those that qualify for federal college grants could increase their funding by performing community service?
The one thing I am sure of: you should voice this opinion to your President-Elect via his web interface - Change.gov - because he needs the dissenting opinion more than anything else.
"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.
Wow, this really sounds like the Hitler Youth. I guess President Kennedy who was the first I remember to encourage service through the Peace Corps should have been referred to as KennedyMassiah?
I think Derek watched those McCain commercials that portrayed Obama in code for the Christian Right as the Anti-Christ too many times.
So what if they held back some of that money and said, hey, Pooks, you need to cook meals for poor elderly people for 100 hours before we'll give you the rest of the money? Well, I bet I would've happily obliged.
Same outlay, poor elderly fed, and I'm still returning tax dollars. And perhaps now I make more money because of my resume building volunteer experience.