Rep. Rangel, "Not a draft, try the American World Service Corps voluntary national service

Congressman Rangel, “Instead of a draft, try the American World Service Corps voluntary national service.”

Dwayne Hunn

Congressman Rangel’s draft vision involves more than putting additional troops in harms way. His vision has young people serving in “hospitals, schools, guarding docks… and receiving tuition payments in return.” He believes service should be rewarded with educational benefits that move everyone up the economic ladder.

Peoples Lobby’s citizen-initiated American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals answers Rangel’s desires. It does so by building a peaceful, productive American army to do domestic and international nation building. It rewards those volunteers in their education, retirement, and / or medical savings accounts, while enhancing their worldview and character.

What is the American World Service Corps?
Within seven years of its passage, one million (less than 1% of those aged 20-60) additional Americans would voluntarily serve at home or abroad in their choice of the: Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, OxFam, Mercy Corps, State Conservation Corps, etc.
Upon service completion, volunteers would receive:
• Two years of community college plus two years of state college tuition (apx. $17,000 in 2004 dollars), or
• An equivalent amount paid into a Medical Savings or IRA account, or
• That amount donated to relatives or community scholarship foundations for educational costs, college, or governmental loans.
When passed, it will be among the most significant legislation passed in decades.
What the AWSC would do
Implementing the AWSC strengthens America at home and abroad by:
• Raising America’s political IQ, thereby helping us implement better public policies.
• Winning international hearts and minds.
• Reducing hatred fired at our soldiers.
• Improving living conditions at home and abroad.
• Giving those who serve a real life education in the classroom of the world.
• Involving Americans in the front lines of dealing appropriately with global climate change.
• Meshing opportunity and responsibility between AWSC volunteers and those with whom they work and serve.
• Building a corps of one million can-do Americans to handle hurricanes, earthquakes, refugee sufferings, and other natural or manmade disasters.
• Serving as a model for other nations to emulate, thereby encouraging them to develop and send their own World Service Corps into the world’s classroom of needs.
• Strengthening national pride, cohesion, and character, without creating a vast new bureaucracy, but instead by strengthening existing governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The Left adamantly oppose merely mentioning a “draft.” The Neo Cons praise “volunteerism,” but do little to incentivize more robust and effective volunteerism. Peoples Lobby’s American World Service Corps is not a draft and incentivizes serious volunteerism.

As Four-star Marine General Anthony Zinni reminds us:
“The military may bring emergency capacities at scales and speeds that NGOs can’t begin to approach; the NGOs bring a depth of un¬derstanding of the needs, requirements, and capacities for long-term recovery that we don’t have.”

Asked about the AWSC proposal on camera by Freedoms Forum, Zinni recently said,
“To me, all those provide service not only internationally but domestically. I could see where this sort of volunteerism would have been effective for Hurricane Katrina, or elsewhere. So we could have international and domestic. I would like to see our government capture all the options, build the program…”

The quicker we implement Peoples Lobby’s citizen-initiated American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals, the quicker we address Congressman Rangel’s desires, increase volunteerism, reduce evil-doers without warfare, and make the world safer, healthier, and smarter.

Details and the full bills are at the web site http://www.WorldServiceCorps.us. If you like them, encourage your Congressional reps to cosponsor them and sign the on-line petition.

Peoples Lobby sponsored the citizen-initiated American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals. Dwayne Hunn, PhD., is its Executive Director. He served in the Peace Corps, on several Habitat Projects, and on the start-up team of the California Conservation Corps.