Ask Us To Serve

Brian Till
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800
Opinion

"I was inspired by Jack Kennedy," a high school teacher replied when I asked what had moved him to join the Peace Corps and work in Cameroon.

A grand, Kennedy-esque call to service flittered throughout Obama's campaign, but never took firm ground. I'm concerned it might never solidify; that nascent campaign ideas, and a critical component of the Obama campaign strategy, may not come to fruition once Barack takes office.

Across the country Monday and Tuesday, voters found themselves overwhelmed by Obama's cadre of the inspired. Not just the young, but the retired, the middle-aged — lawyers and businessmen that had taken leaves of absence to canvass, phone bank and drive the disabled to the polls.
Updated: Tue Nov 04, 2008

"I was inspired by Jack Kennedy," a high school teacher replied when I asked what had moved him to join the Peace Corps and work in Cameroon.

A grand, Kennedy-esque call to service flittered throughout Obama's campaign, but never took firm ground. I'm concerned it might never solidify; that nascent campaign ideas, and a critical component of the Obama campaign strategy, may not come to fruition once Barack takes office.

Across the country Monday and Tuesday, voters found themselves overwhelmed by Obama's cadre of the inspired. Not just the young, but the retired, the middle-aged — lawyers and businessmen that had taken leaves of absence to canvass, phone bank and drive the disabled to the polls.

At Wesleyan University last spring, where Sen. Obama gave the commencement speech in place of the sickened Sen. Kennedy, Obama told graduates that only pursing narrow self-interests, big houses and nice suits "betrays a poverty of ambition."

In December 2007, speaking behind a podium emblazed with a "Call to Serve" placard, Obama announced a plan to double Peace Corps ranks to 16,000 by 2011, the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's bold vision for foreign service. He planned to enroll fluent speakers of languages like Arabic, Urdu and Farsi in state department public diplomacy classes then send them overseas, so that the American voice might be better heard in the foreign language media. And he called for the creation of a Craiglist for service, a local, online means to pair those seeking to volunteer with the institutions and elderly that need help most.

But in the face of a faltering economy, alongside a foreign policy portfolio that will demand more involvement than previous presidents have had to expound, it's quite possible that call will be abandoned, and, if not, at least subdued.

The Obama campaign succeeded this past year by building an infrastructure to channel the enthusiasm Barack instilled — by telling people which neighbors to remind to go to the polls, by enlisting them to throw house parties, work phones and recruit other donors and volunteers.

Obama shouldn't abandon plans that he roughly sketched on the campaign trail. Ideas like bringing the baby boomers, the healthiest generation of Americans to ever retire, back to public service as tutors, mentors and advisers to young people in the professions of their expertise.

Not only should he not discard them, he should go further. The new administration should offer those that want to study teaching and nursing — two critical, underpaid professions in crisis — the same incentives as those that volunteer to serve in arms. Full tuition reimbursements, summer placements in professions they're pursuing and opportunity for advanced degree training.

He should give incentives to those that pursue engineering degrees in the same manner, further rewarding those who put their education to use developing and expanding American infrastructure and green technology. He plans to expand the military by 92,000; why not recruit with a new vision, a corps with beyond standard training, expected to be deploy peacekeepers and in instances of genocide?

Obama should expand Teach for America, or a similar federal program, that would double the talented young people in schools with teacher shortages, until incentives give rise to more trained teachers. He should make good on the opportunities he's mumbled about, and leverage campaign enthusiasm into the rebirth of American service.

It won't be enough for the young president to simply appoint a director, or even cabinet-level secretary. The endeavor will need to be nurtured, its accomplishments celebrated by the highest office. He'll have to spend as much time with those that work quietly for America as he does with those bankers, lawmakers and executives that presidents must oscillate between to bring policy and laws to life.

To the President-elect: Don't let these ideas fall victim to the strain of recession and war. Don't relegate generations you've inspired — talented, dedicated Americans hungry to do more than read news clips and blogs — to once again merely hoping for a better tomorrow. Empower the republic to become the change you have preached for the past 22 months.

Brian Till, one of the nation's youngest syndicated columnists, is a research associate for the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington. He can be contacted at till@newamerica.net. To find out more about the author and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.