Citizen service should be discussed not dismissed

January 3, 10:24 PMTampa Politics ExaminerJim Stillman

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One of my favorite writers on civil liberties is J. D. Tuccille, Civil Liberties Examiner from Miami. As a member of the ACLU and, years ago, a participant in litigation on its behalf, I share many of Mr. Tuccille’s views. On the other hand, I sometimes disagree, respectfully, very respectfully.

I offer the following article as a springboard for sober reflection, acknowledging the concepts are foreign to our country’s psyche and to most liberal and progressive people; on the other hand, these are extraordinary times with extraordinary challenges. I urge readers to thoroughly read and think about the hyperbolic remarks by those who commented on the articles, comparing the concept of some form of compulsory service to be, alternatively, communistic, fascist, and the equivalent of slavery. It is none of these and deserves consideration on the merits.

A while ago I wrote about the need for universal sacrifice by all Americans to address a number of urgent needs. In the past, great Presidents have engaged the public in fighting wars and defending our country. More recently, it has been the vogue to avoid this for political reasons. The results were to be expected. World War II brought sacrifice on all levels, civilian and military. Rationing, expansion of the workforce to women building airplanes, “Victory gardens”, children pasting in defense stamps and buying saving bonds, all served to promote the war efforts, brought us together and brought victory.

On the other hand, Lyndon Johnson and George Bush, when faced with Vietnam and the terror attacks of September 11, intentionally left the majority of people out of the conflict. “Guns and butter” was the slogan of LBJ and President Bush urged us all to go shopping. Things did not, or will not, be as successful.

There is a way to correct serious problems in our society. Where are we now as a nation?

One of my favorite anecdotes from the time this country was established concerns a question from at the closing of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Benjamin Franklin was asked, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin is said to have replied, "A republic, "if you can keep it."

The founders of our country were not optimistic about the future of the Republic. They had good reason to believe it would fail. There had been only a handful of other republics in all of human history, and most were small and far away. The founders' pessimism, though, came not from history but from their knowledge of human nature. A republic, to survive, needed not only the consent of the governed but also their active participation. It was not a machine that would be perpetually in motion or to give another analogy, a plant that would grow without care and effort. Free societies do not stay free without the involvement of their citizens.

I have discussed this with close friends and the opinions expressed showed a belief that there were two primary acts of citizenship: voting and paying taxes. Very close friends have expressed their opposition to a compulsory service as a requirement of passage into responsible citizens; I would suggest, however, that a strong and informed citizenry is exactly what is needed in there times.

It is true that two major acts of democratic citizenship are the payment of taxes and voting/ And that’s basically it. There are Libertarians who take the philosophical view that Government now take too many choices and freedoms from us. However, I expect that most of us feel uneasy that only about half of us vote and don't do much more than send in our returns on April 15. The truth is, even the archetype of the model citizen is mostly a myth. Except for times of war and the colonial days, we haven't been all that energetic about keeping the Republic.

There is a certain irony here. Those who assert that the Second Amendment grants an individual’s right to have a weapon, forget the historical basis for that right was the need for an armed citizenry to repel threats at a moment’s notice – not for quasi-law enforcement purposes but as a well-trained ,militia to defend the collective society.

I see another trend and set of beliefs in our nation

Polling indicates that while confidence in our democracy and our government is near an all-time low, volunteerism and civic participation in the past 30 years has arisen to near all-time high. Why would this be so? If confidence is so low, why would people bother volunteering? The explanation is pretty simple. People, especially young people, think the government and the public sphere are broken, but they feel they can personally make a difference through community service.

After 9/11, Americans were hungry to be asked to do something, to make some kind of sacrifice, and what they mostly remember is being asked to go shopping. The reason private volunteerism is so high is precisely that confidence in our public institutions is so low. People see volunteering not as a form of public service but as an antidote for it.

That is not a recipe for keeping a republic.

Where are we now?

• We are at or near the bottom of the world’s industrial countries in the scientific knowledge needed to be innovative and important in the world’s economy.
• We graduate, or in any event, discharge, many children from our schools unable to read or write, unable to perform complex tasks, much less enter and succeed in college.
• There is an entire culture of young people more interested in celebrity gossip than in personal development, drifting in the Mall, hats askew, and pants drooping, without hope or direction.
• Many of our families do not have the resources to send their children to college, even if well-qualified.
• We have an uneven and often unfair distribution and availability of health care providers, not even considering the rationing of such care by reason of cost.
• We have a crumbling infrastructure, roads, schools, bridges need repair.
• We are near the bottom of the world’s industrial nations in providing mass transit.
• Our economy is in disarray, to say the least.
• We have not been able to develop alternative fuels and fuel efficient transportation.
• We have placed the burdens of war, natural disasters, and everything unpleasant upon the shoulders of an over-burdened and over-stretched military.

Barack Obama has made a proposal which has not been universally greeted with acclaim; many observers suggest that it is far too ambitious. It is available on one of the Obama websites and is cited below. I do not believe it goes far enough.

The general framework would have high school graduates enter into a commitment to our nation to serve in some form of community service. The service would be military, civilian, related to public health issues, activities leading to government service as a teacher, a tutor of and for troubled teens, readers and helpers to the elderly and infirm, all activities and services that we are sorely in need. In return, the individual could receive some form of government stipend or other device that could be used to provide for doctors in training, opening clinics for primary care in rural or inner-city neighborhoods
To my friends, do not dismiss this out of hand. Do not engage in characterizing the possibility as a wish for a communist or Nazi-like regime. We have flourished as a society that sprang forth for the Minutemen of Lexington and Concord, with hope and a dedication to the strengthening of our people. Let’s not stop now.