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26081351
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Service - General
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26081351
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Service - General
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Records of the Domestic Policy Council (Clinton Administration)
Eric Liu's Files
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42-t-7367466-20130717S-015-023-2015
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Service- General
PHOTOCOPY
RESERVATION
тотеньити offers Amer wans jocas
Q1199
their energy and idealism.
ing.
In Africa, 34 millions
been with HIV, of which
Keeping alive the spirit of national service
drive intready died.
a One million African children have
million have lost at least ne parent to ADS
America of the inner city, the worst schools, the least
civic basketweaving and singing folk solign around the
ain a South Africat, a beacon of sconomic
RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON
hope versus the America of the designer label, the get
camplire.
democratic hope of the continent,
ed community, the best (and, sometimes, most isolat
Two thirds of its money passes through governors
will have plushheted to an
doubt that many of us are nostalgic for the Great
ed) education money can buy.
to grass reuts community groups; Gereit goes to tra
next year because aCAIDS.
I
The most of this
Depression, global warfare, or the military draft
Yet anyone who spends time with the new genera
ditional nonprefits. Voldateers spend R year Eving and
tion is struck by how many while corrosively cynical
phe is that is is largery
But one need not wish to reprise history to notice
working wherever they needed They
about polities and politicians are passionate about
developing nátions, notably
what has been lost to America's young people a
and ensuring that kids stay mechool They
Seneral, have demond trated that,
common experience, a chance to serve. which cuta
and committed to beltin others. From tutoring
build housing. They sugment
political consultent. and AUB
across the barriers of race, class, and education.
dred to building houses
grams. They combat drug above.
verition efforts, infection rates du decline
In the 1930s, thousands joined the Civilian Conser-
these young people eagerly seek chances to serve All
relief efforts: In Oklahoma, more than 60 are has
the US Agency
vation Corps, undertaking scores of needed projects
of which makes the recent proposal to expand
working with victims of
UNAIDS
while trading their adverse circumstances for a
Corps so refreshing
In
short,
they
fulfill
Robert
broader experience of the country's needs and prom-
This peace engaged
VISTA
HIV.
ise. The compelling need to wage World War II rein-
40,000 people in intense service to communities
forced the belief that common secrifice for the common
the country. not, wasterni
good is an incident of citizenship. It; was this
which led many to john the
Peace Corps a governmental
call to action or to respond to
the moral call of the civil rights
movement. And, in the process,
their vision of America and the
world became less parochial
and more compassionate.
But somewhere in the last
few decades, we mislaid the
idea that national service is et-
ther obligatory or enriching. As
with many shifts in social atti-
tudes. Vietnam serves as a fault
and
the
line. One of the ugliest truths of
made
the
battle
the Vietnam draft with its
class biases and small corrup-
tions is that Americans who
hereby
whiten
to
be
served (and died) were dispro-
portionately poor, black, and
less educated. And one of its
copied
agliest legacies is the elitist no-
tion that (the officer corps
Reed
aside) military service is not for
everyone but is a job and &
Podeste
training program for those
without 1 better place to go.
SERVICE
The result is that all too of
ten, we offer young people a vi-
sion of community which EX-
tends to the nearest shopping
mail
One byproduct is to exacer-
bate our growing division the
General