National Service

  This is a large component of my overall vision for the country and works in conjunction with most of the other ideas presented. The plan is to have two years of national service, to be served one year before the age of 19 and the other year within the first three years of receiving social security retirement benefits. This national service would be with the option to serve this time in: one of the branches of military, an expanded AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, or one of two new agencies to benefit the communities at large. 

The first of these has its primary focus to improve American infrastructure, while the second would have its concentration on the beautification of cities, towns, and open spaces across the country. The idea behind this service is, of course, to benefit the country quite directly, but the hope is that this love of service will continue in our neighborhoods and communities throughout the rest of the lives of the American people. This could assist in almost every aspect of our lives, establishing and building communities of volunteers that may not typically come into interaction with each other. 

We have major problems in this country due to loneliness, self-worth, isolation, personal responsibility, and general fear just to name a few. It’s easy to distrust and hate the people you don’t know. Not only will participants get to know a variety of other volunteers and administrators in their specific program they will come to know the community that program serves.

This program would not only take advantage of the experience from those people leaving the workforce and harness the energy from the youth just moving into it, but it fosters a culture of respect and friendship across generations. We have slowly been losing the respect for age in either direction, this should create an understanding and pride for what it is that makes us an American community that includes all races, creeds, colors, and ages.

  While we are all pretty familiar with what our military does, only a deservedly proud few know the hard work needed to build the powerful and efficient fighting force this country can call into action across the globe on a moment’s notice. While a year’s service will not provide a full exposure to the high-tech specialization that now exists in our military, it will give our country a citizen soldier class who will retain the training to react in times of crisis beyond their time in the military. While we sit in a period that we largely feel safe from any foreign invading force capable of standing up against our fighters and their machines, modern technology provides as much opportunity for stealth and speed as it does for detection. And as we’ve seen from the conflicts in the Ukraine and the Middle East, modern warfare has drastically changed; multi-million-dollar tanks can be eliminated from thousand-dollar drones. The more people who know how to operate advanced weaponry and move with military precision only make our country safer, and their training will always be present even after their short-term service. This may improve the overall quality of the military as many young men and women may take this short-term opportunity to continue with a longer commitment.

  An agency to be set up to largely assist in support roles for our men and women putting themselves at risk on a daily basis to assist the larger community. This agency is to act as a bridge between local departments and help them fill their needs and find the best places to serve with that year of service. Additionally, this should help to ease local budgetary struggles and get more money into the hands of the people putting their lives on the line for all of us. For the community at large this involvement should repair some of the disrespectful feeling towards police and assist in the community voice being heard by those in position of enforcing our laws. Depending on the needs of the departments, I could foresee this service time being used to assist in enforcement of non-violent crimes and community outreach.

  AmeriCorps now has a long track record of service in the community and has an existing program which includes senior volunteers. Their focus on disaster relief, employment building, education, environmental conservation, veteran support, and combating homelessness and hunger directly attack the largest issues facing the disenfranchised in our country today. Expanding this agency will only serve to benefit the country, and I’d like to expand their efforts to assist schools. I think the expansion of AmeriCorps volunteers in schools could boom to one to three additional people to assist per classroom, with the larger numbers being in the “boom” years we now see in our retirement populations. The advantage to our children’s classrooms is incalculable with the year of service- it provides the individual teachers the ability to train and mentor their assistants and tailor the needs for their in-class curriculum for the entirety of the school year. Additionally, the hard to fill positions in the lunchroom, driving buses, security, and mental health services could all benefit from a large pool of volunteers able to properly train at the beginning of the year and see that continuation until the end of the year.

  The Peace Corps has over 60 years of bringing relief around the globe to communities by assisting with both the resources and the know-how to make a better life. Not only does this provide for the basic needs for those in the world most at risk, but it also spreads the values of America and puts the charitable spirit of our country on direct display. More hands and more bodies only make the world safer and healthier.

  This first agency is to concentrate on the rebuilding of our aging and in some cases failing infrastructure. I envision retiring engineers, contractors, and architects working alongside youthfully strong bodies and innovative minds to rebuild bridges, tunnels, railways, roads, dams, and the like. This country has seen some major disasters as our infrastructure slowly matures and is used well beyond its originally engineered capacities. While I know there are many who will cry foul at the loss of government jobs being replaced by a volunteer work force, it has never been very difficult for a politician to find jobs for their district when they need to find votes in the next election. So realistically, I’d hope to save a little money for the government projects, but hopefully get a lot more of them done.

This is the beautification agency. This I would liken back to the programs during the depression like the WPA federal art project, but with the ability to extend beyond visual arts and actually plant flowers and trees, remove vandalism, and simply pick up trash in our cities. While I think all of us at one point have stood in a government building, train station, airport, and the like amazed at art deco images of our history presented to us the modern equivalent is hard to find. I’d like to see the visual medium used to show interpretations of the modern information-aged displayed for future generations to stand in similar amazement at the story of our present.  

This plan for service is to start for about 5 years or so as a limited volunteer program as the bureaucracies are built to make this a slow intelligent rollout, basically to “get the kinks out”. During this period colleges and universities will be encouraged to favor students coming in with this experience. Additionally the national service should provide a $40,000 grant for college or a $30,000 small business grant for those who choose to serve. This funding can be used from existing programs as well as the savings to the budget using volunteers over paid positions. The secondary phase would actually begin incentivization  for students and seniors with preferential treatment in grant and loan programs for education and new small business that already exist in the federal budget. I would think this secondary period would last about 10 years. With the final phase hoping for near full participation, with a punitive side of reduced social security retirement benefits and restrictive federal loans for those not participating. I think over the matter of two generations or so the American people will wear this service as a badge of pride and honor. This plan will assist in repairing our fractured communities, aid local budgets, build a happier and safer nation.