Serving

I've been seriously considering applying for AmeriCorps, at least partly because I've experienced corporate America and would really appreciate the opportunity to do a job that helps people rather than takes advantage of them. With that in mind, the cover story from the Sept. 10 issue of Time Magazine seemed to be very timely. (Yeah, pun kinda intended.) A Time to Serve: The Case for National Service

The article lays out the importance of national service and suggests that part of the reason that the current generation of young people are so interested in service is because they have so little belief in the government. This may or may not be true, I don't know. I did find it rather ironic that Time then proceeded to suggest that the federal government and the presidential candidates should do a lot more to encourage volunteerism and national service. Right. Because when you have a group of people that engage in activities because they are skeptical about the government, it makes a lot of sense to involve the government in those activities even more. Luckily they don't recommend compulsory service, because I know that for myself and other people my age that would fly about like a lead balloon.

The article then puts forth 10 ideas/steps for enacting a plan for "universal national service."

1. Create a National Service Baby-Bond (hmm...interesting, but it involves the government handling more of people's money...and creates a Social Security-esque fund)
2. Make National Service a Cabinet-Level Department (maybe, but is more bureaucracy really that necessary?)
3. Expand Existing National Service Programs like AmeriCorps and National Senior Volunteer Corps (Well, yes. Fairly obvious, this.)
4. Create an Education Corps (Makes sense, but the teacher certification people won't like it.)
5. Institute a Summer of Service (Okay, just the sheer number of adult volunteers that would be required to make it feasible to oversee a horde of 8th/9th grade volunteers seems silly.)
6. Build a Health Corps (Actually, this could be a good idea in general.)
7. Launch a Green Corps (This could be a good idea too, if it's done properly.)
8. Recruit a Rapid-Response Reserve Corps (Again, not a horrible idea...)
9. Start a National Service Academy (Uh...what's the point? Do we really need to found another school just so that we can require attendees to commit 5 years to public service afterwards?)
10. Create a Baby-Boomer Education Bond (Hmm...I'm not sold on this idea. Have Baby Boomers volunteer so they can get a $1,000 scholarship that they can earmark for a grandchild/other child of their choice? Seems like a silly incentive, although maybe it's valid.)

Honestly, I think my main fear with a lot of these ideas is that they create more bureaucracy that is unnecessary. I will say that I haven't seen much evidence of excessive bureaucracy with the AmeriCorps programs, and maybe that is because there aren't a lot of high profile politicians mixing around with it. So by all means, expand AmeriCorps and similar programs to fill more pressing needs. Just don't encourage the politicians to get involved because it might just squelch our interesting in service.