Obama Calls For Mandatory Government Service, page 4
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ATS Members have flagged this thread 11 times


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 12:16 PM by LLoyd45
Originally posted by Hal9000
reply to
post by vor78


Even if he wanted to make it mandatory, you and I both know people would not allow that to happen. It would be voluntary just as it is right now. He is hoping to expand it to allow more students to be able to do it. They are turning people away because the programs lack the funding.

Show me some documentation where students are clamoring to do community service.. I think you're hallucinating. I can ask any teenager on the street would they like to do community service, and they'd think I was a nut for asking. Ask your own children if you have any, how they like the idea of being forced to work free of charge..

As for the American people not allowing mandatory service to happen, that's nonsense. We've allowed just about every civil right we have to be violated by the Homeland Security and Patriot Acts. Tell me it isn't so..


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 12:18 PM by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by LLoyd45



Please see my post on the bottom of page 3.

There's more to this than you right-leaning source.

Do you have a link that works, by the way? Edit: Looks like their site is down.

[edit on 12-7-2008 by Benevolent Heretic]


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 12:27 PM by LLoyd45



reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 12:29 PM by vor78
reply to post by Hal9000



I'm not as certain in this day and age. There are an awful lot of things that have become politically acceptable that leave me shaking my head in disbelief.

That said, in a link a few posts up, Obama's position is clarified. I now agree, it is voluntary. Still, I maintain that in the manner it was worded in that earlier passage, it can very easily be interpreted as required not just for the tax credit, but required, period. They need to restructure that passage to reflect the true intent.


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 12:29 PM by vor78
reply to post by Hal9000



I'm not as certain in this day and age. There are an awful lot of things that have become politically acceptable that leave me shaking my head in disbelief.

That said, in a link a few posts up, Obama's position is clarified. I now agree, it is voluntary. Still, I maintain that in the manner it was worded in that earlier passage, it can very easily be interpreted as required not just for the tax credit, but required, period. They need to restructure that passage to reflect the true intent.


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 12:42 PM by Johnmike
reply to post by grover



So I guess instead of going to school I'd be forced to work for the government against my will? That's really nice. Thanks grover. Thanks, Uncle Sam! Some rite of passage I get!


reply to Andrew E. Wiggin



Andrew, equating this to employment is misleading at best. Look at how it's working.

You pay taxes into a fund, against your will (which is why it's a tax). Everyone in college gets $4,000. But to get it, they have to do 100 hours of unpaid labor.

So in reality, they're taking money from you and making you beg to get it back. And is community service still service if the government pays you to do it? Didn't think so. This is just a veiled way to make people serve the government.

Obama's starting to scare me a little now (more than a little). If you read into a certain things, they have serious global-socialist undertones. Nothing I'd go nuts about alone, but the things he says and supports, all put together... You have to wonder.

And requiring it to graduate from high school and middle school? That's not even the role of the federal government; the state and district control the curriculum. But even if it was, you'd just create service mongers, like we have today for certain programs that require it (certain religious and honor programs). It completely fails at motivating anyone to continue doing service - it just teaches them that they have to get the requirement out of the way doing the least work possible. I'm all for volunteering, but give me a break. Mandatory service is not service.

I'm on the fence about institutions requiring service to graduate on their own, but making this a federal mandate, in any way, veiled or otherwise, is a joke.


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 01:36 PM by FlyersFan
www.abovetopsecret.com...&addstar=1&on=4613055#pid4613055

See above thread -

Perhaps Obama is getting his ducks in a row to implement Rockefeller's NWO 'Global Kids".

Considering all the time kids spend at school .. then on sports ... then on homework ... and now with state sponsored slave labor ....

It's just wrestling the kids away from the parents - NAZI style.

Rockefeller NWO "GLOBAL KIDS" ... yep.
Considering Obama's CFR/Bilderberger connections.... Could be.


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 02:54 PM by Anonymous ATS
reply to post by LLoyd45



Sound like communist country,..I know how this work,..next will be uniforms,..
try to make everybody equal ,Grey citizens..I born behind iron curtain...so I know


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 03:58 PM by Hal9000
Originally posted by LLoyd45
Show me some documentation where students are clamoring to do community service.. I think you're hallucinating. I can ask any teenager on the street would they like to do community service, and they'd think I was a nut for asking.

There is always a surge in volunteers after each disaster like 9/11 and Katrina. As it turns out, after 9/11, guess who else had a call to serve and tried to expand Americorps due to the high increase in people that wanted to volunteer?

Mr. Bush's call to service is the latest, but not the only, response by federal leaders to try to convert into real volunteer action what many believe is a new desire by Americans to help their country since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, have proposed legislation that would, among other things, expand the annual number of participants in AmeriCorps from 50,000 to 250,000 by the end of the decade.

An Appeal for Action: Bush asks Americans to make a major volunteer commitment

In the same article, they show how they had to turn other volunteer organizations away due to lack of funding.

Mr. Kowalczyk said he believes that charities will be quick to put any new volunteers to work if his organization and others are able to recruit them. "The interest by charities for more resources is significant," he said. "Without significant outreach because of funding limitations, over the last several years we have turned down between 10 to 25 percent" of the requests from charities interested in working with the agency's service members.


Unfortunately, in 2003 there were severe cutbacks. Here is an article from your favorite news source.

For next year, the president requested an increase of more than $150 million for AmeriCorps -- which was created by former President Clinton. That would allow for an expansion of the program to cover the enrollment of some 75,000 volunteers, and boost overall funding to $554 million.

It is not clear whether that funding will become a reality, though -- especially given that the GOP-led Congress voted to cap AmeriCorps enrollment at 50,000 volunteers this year.

AmeriCorps Cuts Funding For Volunteers


I can't find any recent numbers, because I think the way it works is whole organization apply to Americorps and not individuals. I guess we just have to rely on Obama's website, unless you can find any evidence that that information is wrong.


reply posted on 12-7-2008 @ 03:59 PM by Jadette
I'm going to let these men speak for me, as they put it more eloquently than I can.

"The ultimate measure of a man or woman is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother or sister to a higher and more noble life."

Martin Luther King


"Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

President John F. Kennedy


Call it socialism if you wish. but I believe we do all have an obligation to each other that goes beyond simply paying our taxes.
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