Mandatory volunteerism???

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, February 21 2008 @ 12:35 PM CST

Isn't that a bit like "coerced affection?"

In a Delaware newspaper[*1] :

Along with an end to the botched Iraq war, and a sustainable economic rescue, the idea that Americans at some point in their lives must do a volunteer stint to improve the country is worth pursuing.

Like Michelle Obama there have been many, many times when Americans of all political persuasions haven't been proud of their country's actions.

But enforced community service at this time in American history could bring immeasurable benefits to the nation's psyche as it grapples with housing foreclosures, doped-up national sports heroes and serious challenges to our international image as world leaders.

They're talking about "national service."  I think there's an argument that can be made that in exchange for enjoying the blessings of liberty in this "last, greatest hope for Man on Earth," there comes a requirement to in some way make our nation better.  But don't go around calling it "volunteering."  That's just dishonest.

Oddly enough, the vague uneasy sense that they've been freeloading and not carrying their weight to make the country better seems to sit heavier on left-leaning people than on many in the right.  That could be because folks on the right actually do things to make their country better (volunteer for military service, become police, etc., etc.), while the lefties sit around and talk about it instead (when they're not actively attacking the police and the military, that is).  Now of course, that's just my cynical take on it.  Yes, I continue to question the patriotism of the most extreme elements of the left.

Via Fark[*2] .

Medary.com - Mandatory volunteerism???
http://www.medary.com/article.php/20080221123512420

[*1] http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080221/OPINION12/802210310/1189/OPINION
[*2] http://www.fark.com/