The time is getting closer.

[Master Taran]

Congressional Commission on Civic Service Act. H.R.1444 (http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1444:)

The bill, under Section 4 (b)6, states:

Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

[Harry Bosch]

Congressional Commission on Civic Service Act. H.R.1444 (http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1444:)

The bill, under Section 4 (b)6, states:

Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Mandatory service requirement? Geesh, isn't it enough that we are asking our children to repay the debts that we have accumulated over the past 50 years? We are leaving our children with massive future tax liabilities, growing health care costs, higher education costs, bankrupted SSN, fewer resources, and etc. Now we want them to work for free for a couple years???

[Christina]

That whole bill sounded interesting to me although the international parts make me at least a little suspicious, and then I got to the word "mandatory" and all of my alarm bells starting going off. Now everything else in the bill looks like pretty packaging wrapped around the intention of that one word.

[RBH]

I go both ways on this. Having grown up in the days of the military draft and served four years in the military, 'volunteering' as an alternative to being drafted (you got more choices volunteering), once in a great while I have a tendency to think "Draft 'em all!" :D Having had the good fortune to be in the military between wars (after Korea and before Viet Nam), I learned a lot, acquired a skill that supported me through undergrad and graduate school, and met and lived in close quarters with a range of people (Staten Island hoods to deep South blacks) that I would never have encountered otherwise. That was good for my social awareness and attitudes, coming as I did from a tiny midwestern village where the homogeneity was overwhelming.

I do think that some way of connecting rights and responsibilities is a good thing, but I'm not at all sure mandatory national service is the best way to accomplish that.

[Lisa0315]

Yeah...mandatory equals draft. I have an 18 year old son, a 21 year old daughter, and a 22 year old future son-in-law. Hello Canada?

Lisa

[Christina]

I do think that some way of connecting rights and responsibilities is a good thing, but I'm not at all sure mandatory national service is the best way to accomplish that.

I agree that it's a good thing but I think that connection has to be at a much younger age. I learned it in gentle ways from my parents and from community organizations like Girl Scouts, and without the baggage of adulthood goals and time constraints the simpler satisfactions and understandings about how you can effect change in small ways are felt internally more than they're externally imposed. IMO a draft is at best an obligation and at worst a punishment and I don't think that seeing community service that way is helpful or healthy for us as a nation.

[darjeeling]

Congressional Commission on Civic Service Act. H.R.1444 (http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1444:)

The bill, under Section 4 (b)6, states:

Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Mandatory service requirement? Geesh, isn't it enough that we are asking our children to repay the debts that we have accumulated over the past 50 years? We are leaving our children with massive future tax liabilities, growing health care costs, higher education costs, bankrupted SSN, fewer resources, and etc. Now we want them to work for free for a couple years???

Plenty already work for free in the form of unpaid internships, and those who choose not to do that are often at a disadvantage later.

without the baggage of adulthood goals and time constraints the simpler satisfactions and understandings about how you can effect change in small ways are felt internally more than they're externally imposed.

^ This.