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View Full Version : The demise of AmeriCorps-a flickering flame



elder999
16th July 2003, 22:29
A while back I posted a thread about "Bush's Lies"; here's the whole story.

Since September 11, President Bush has issued a series of stirring calls to America's young people to volunteer their services to the country; hundreds of thousands have responded-including my son. The president has focused special attention on Americorps, the domestic counterpart to the PeaceCorps, seeking to increase its size to 75,000 volunteers. No fewer than 67,000 signed up to serve last year, and long lines are being turned away from trying to join this fall.


Jeremy Reynolds is one of many who testify to the results. He runs Joy Junction, a faith-based program supporting Albuquerque's poor. When freezing cold gripped the city last winter, he says, "I worked with AmeriCorps packing thousands of food bags, delivering packages of food to the homebound,. I saw AmeriCorps collect and deliver prescriptions and I witnessed faith and love in action."




There are countless stories across the nation of AmeriCorps volunteers tutoring young children ,working with HIV-AIDS patients, or helping the elderly. As anthropologist Margaret Mead said, : "Never think that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Unbelievably, AmeriCorps is heading for a smashup. Officials in Washington say they only have enough money for the coming year to support 28000 volunteers- a calamitous cut of more than half. Of some 700 community programs, at least 300 will be wiped out.

How did this happen, especially to a program endorsed by the President and Mrs. Bush? The answers aren't pretty. Officials in Washington, it turns out ,mismanaged funds in past years, so it isn't all the Presidents or the Republicans fault. A bipartisan bill to fix the management problems has been steered through Congress, but it still leaves the program short of operating funds. This is an easy problem to fix: Congress need only pass a supplemental spending bill of $200 million or less, chump change when we have a $55 billion deficit&.Republicans in Congress say they'll pass a supplemental if the president asks first; the White House,, afraid Congress will add too many other expenditures, say the president will happily sign a clean bill if Congress passes it first. "Afterrr you Gaston." " NO, after you....."


Yes, the program was mismanaged; penalize the people who did that, not the kids that do the work. Yes, it would be easier for the White House to wait for a clean bill, but the call to action came from the President.


Some Republicans are dragging their feet because AmeriCorps was started by Bill Clinton, and they think that "...it's a program for hippie kids to stand around the campfire and sing Kumbaya,"as Republican Senator Rick Santorum put it, until he saw AmeriCorps in action.

The Republican charge that AmeriCorps workers are not truly volunteers because they receive modest salaries is specious. We celebrate our all-volunteer armed forces and pay "volunteers"who carry a rifle more than twice what we pay "volunteers" who teach poor children.

Thousands of young people-like my son- who signed up for AmeriCorps this coming year are now being told to stay home; Uncle Sam doesn't need them anymore.

We have long lamented that young people don't vote; now we're telling them they shouldn't serve, either, unless it's with a rifle. Many are hurt and disillusioned. Surely, Washington will act. Surely, a president who so nobly called them to service won't let this flame die.

Jack B
17th July 2003, 15:30
Bush considers Public Works programs to be a Welfare scheme. The fact that they could employ thousands of our out-of-work labor force, spur real economic growth in the private sector, and create lasting improvements to our national infrastructure assets, is irrelevant. The problem is that it doesn't put money into his cronies' pockets.

Starkjudo
17th July 2003, 15:35
Originally posted by Jack B
Bush considers Public Works programs to be a Welfare scheme. The fact that they could employ thousands of our out-of-work labor force, spur real economic growth in the private sector, and create lasting improvements to our national infrastructure assets, is irrelevant. The problem is that it doesn't put money into his cronies' pockets.

Wrong. That got tried during the Great Depression. While it did serve to boost people's pride by providing jobs. It did nothing to improve the economy. That didn't begin to turn around until WWII.

Rob Thornton