This article in the NYT was interesting. Mind you, I have nothing but derision for Kelly’s attitude toward the American people he’s supposed to be serving, but he’s got the right idea with a national service.
I agree. I think we should have a national service in which all Americans, except for the most seriously disabled, should be required to participate. Not just – or even primarily – military service. We should not live our lives or run our country in devotion to war. There are a thousand other things people could do during their service: build homes, schools, or other public areas, teach, feed, care for elderly or children, serve on juries, pick up litter, serve as emergency responders… we could consistently build and maintain a highly functional society whose people understand they depend on each other.
Timing and length of service is debatable. Immediately after high school? Or after college? Or perhaps there could be alternatives people could choose. Some tasks will require skills or education, so people who go into one of those areas might wait until after college or other training. Some tasks just need a few weeks of OJT, so they might be for new high school graduates.
Like the military, people should be paid for this time in service. Health care is a given, as are a regulated work week, time off, etc. It’s a job, but the work is devoted to something the country needs to have done. There should be a basic training period like the military has, although it may not need to be so physically rigorous. That will depend on the unit’s assigned task (MOS in military terms). But the point of it is to build community among the cohort, and this is something that is sorely needed among Americans today. We are too fragmented and too disposed to ignore each other. Basic training and a couple of years in community service will at least be a time in our lives when we knew what it was to work with others toward a common goal.
And we’ll get things done that need doing. We’ll finally be able to maintain our infrastructure and we’ll have access to bright minds and nimble ideas to improve on the old and build the new. And with the training and skills people get during this time, they’ll be able to go out and find or create jobs that will support them and continue to contribute to society as productive citizens. Who knows, maybe we’ll reduce homelessness, too.
And just maybe, we won’t hate each other so much.
Marlene Dotterer 
Agree on all counts, you rabble-rouser. Good luck. Harlan
I think the idea of national service is splendid. Since there is always the possibility that the service will include becoming a soldier, delay national service until after the brain has developed, say age 25. A three-year commitment wouldn’t interfere too much with education or a career.
Reblogged this on 1EarthUnited and commented:
Marlene, this is a brilliant suggestion! I know Israel and S Korea has mandatory 2 to 3 year military service. Why not recruit citizens who are unemployed, poor, on gov’t welfare and give them a sense of purpose?
I could see an expanded national Peace Corps operation to really Make America Great Again, not just an empty slogan!
As long as the CIA stays out of it, I’m for it. Peace Corps is a CIA front.
I’m ignorant on the Peace Corp and CIA fronts, but the idea of the Peace Corp is sound. Use what’s good and leave out what’s bad.
Well, you can’t do that (use what’s good) when they’re so well-blended. Same for the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and USAID, etc. Sure, some good work gets done. If we ignore corruption, we will always have corruption. Boy Scouts was a good thing for boys who wanted to become men. Real men aren’t pink, they revere and protect pink. This is that time in our history when corruption is bubbling to the surface and we are required to deal with it.
“National Service” in anything but a small homogeneous society will become service to the egotistical, power-hungry leaders of the nation claimed to be being served. It results in the Soviet Union, Maoist China, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, North Korea and other tyrannies. David Rockefeller thought very highly of Mao and his communism; it puts dictators more or less securely in total charge of large populations. A nation is best served by a society practicing free market capitalism. Tyrants put people into debt slavery and bloody wars that people are led into.
We can get there without a National Service. We’re on the way right now. And there is nothing in a National Service that contradicts free market capitalism. Which we do NOT practice in this country, either.