Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Associated Press • April 22, 2009 •Salinas Californian staff writer Kimber Solana contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - A president who credits community service with giving him direction in life opened that opportunity to tens of thousands more Americans on Tuesday.
President Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college by helping those in their neighborhoods.
Though how the funds will be distributed is still unknown, said Jillian Wiker, program director of AmeriCorp's Monterey County United for Literacy.
Excited about the prospect of getting more funds, Wiker said "we don't know how [the funds] will trickle down, but this will positively impact our program," adding it will give them the opportunity to expand their operation.
With more funding, Wiker said they'll be able to hire more people. AmeriCorps in Monterey County has 30 full-time volunteers serving 1,700 hours a year, Wiker said.
Since January, Wiker said, the program has received a total of 80 applications - more than three times the amount of applications they received at this time last year.
The United for Literacy program helps students from kindergarten to fourth grade increase their reading skills and comprehension to grade level. Volunteer tutors serve the Alisal Union School District in Salinas and the community of Greenfield in south Monterey County.
United for Literacy members receive a yearly stipend of $10,775 and receive an education award of $4,725 upon completion of minimum hours of service. The service law Obama signed expands ways for students and seniors to earn money for college through their volunteer work. It aims to foster and fulfill people's desire to make a difference, such as mentoring children, cleaning up parks or buildings and weatherizing homes for the poor.
"What this legislation does, then, is to help harness this patriotism and connect deeds to needs," said Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago.
"It creates opportunities to serve for students, seniors and everyone in between," he said. "And it is just the beginning of a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to involve our greatest resource - our citizens - in the work of remaking this nation."
"I'm asking you to help change history's course, put your shoulder up against the wheel," Obama said. "And if you do, I promise you your life will be richer, our country will be stronger, and someday, years from now, you may remember it as the moment when your own story and the American story converged, when they came together, and we met the challenges of our new century."Congress passed the bill last month with largely bipartisan support and Obama is seeking $1.1 billion to fund it next year. Some Republicans complain it is too costly and is an unnecessary intrusion by government into something Americans already do eagerly and in great numbers - helping their neighbors and communities.
The legislation provides for gradually increasing the size of the Clinton-era AmeriCorps to 250,000 enrollees from its current 75,000. It outlines five broad categories where people can direct their service: helping the poor, improving education, encouraging energy efficiency, strengthening access to health care and assisting veterans.
AmeriCorps offers a range of volunteer opportunities including housing construction, youth outreach, disaster response and caring for the elderly.
Thanks for all you do! Live your values. Love your country. And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make aDIFFERENCE!
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The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan to set up a new "volunteer corps" and consider whether "a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people" should be developed.
The legislation also refers to "uniforms" that would be worn by the "volunteers" and the "need" for a "public service academy, a 4-year institution" to "focus on training" future "public sector leaders." The training, apparently, would occur at "campuses."
It not only reauthorizes the programs, but also includes "new programs and studies" and is expected to be funded with an allocation of $6 billion over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Many, however, are raising concerns that the program, which is intended to include 250,000 "volunteers," is the beginning of what President Obama called his "National Civilian Security Force" in a a speech last year in which he urged creating an organization as big and well-funded as the U.S. military. He has declined since then to elaborate.
WND reported when a copy of the speech provided online apparently was edited to exclude Obama's specific references to the new force.
The new bill specifically references the possibilities "if all individuals in the United States were expected to perform national service or were required to perform a certain amount of national service."
Such new requirements perhaps, the legislation notes, "would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds."
No one, apparently with the exception of infants, would be excluded.
The means to develop awareness of national service and volunteer opportunities at a young age by creating, expanding, and promoting service options for elementary and secondary school students, through service learning or other means, and by raising awareness of existing incentives."
"It becomes forced labor and like the practice of another era, presses American citizens of all ages and creeds, unknowingly into military service," the commentary said.
"On paper, H.R. 1388 is the 'Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act'; the more innocuous sounding 'The Give Act,' for short.
"The Give Act puts the finishing touches to Public Allies New Leadership for New Times, modeled after Saul Alinsky's 'Peoples Organizations' and operating under Michelle Obama," the commentary said.
"Michelle was also a pioneer in the social entrepreneur movement – leaders who create new approaches and organize to provide new solutions to social problems. Like most things Saul Alinsky, H.R. 1388 sounds noble in stating why wide-sweeping change is necessary," the commentary said.
"H.R. 1388 goes straight to the heart of volunteerism in America, impacting everything from the lemonade stands of neighborhood children, to the residents of senior citizens homes. … The Give Act puts tow-headed school children and silver-haired seniors in the official uniform of the new State, and encompasses every walk of life in main-street America," the commentary said. "Whether you are young or old, or firmly believe that volunteering means you are offering your time to the good of community work, you will be pressed into Obama's National Civilian Community Corps."
Groups of such "volunteers," would, under the legislation, be "grouped together as appropriate in campuses for operational, support, and boarding purposes. The Corps campus for a unit shall be in a facility or central location established as the operational headquarters and boarding place for the unit. … There shall be a superintendent for each camp."
The plan generated this concern from Resistnet.com: "This is the equivalent of brown shirts."
Another portion of the bill talks about a "service learning" plan that will be "a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency."
A forum participant noted, "I wonder what's going to happen to those who refused to 'volunteer.' Maybe they will be put into a different 'campus.' I guess we will soon find out."
Formal announcements about the plan suggested something far different, picking a provision far down in the 200 pages of legislation to highlight.
According to a Business Wire statement released by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the bill "would formally authorize federal support for establishing the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America as a National Day of Service and Remembrance."
That provision is tucked into the far reaches of the legislation, but Schumer discussed it as if it were the primary point.
"I could not be more proud to work to pass this important provision," said Schumer. "September 11 should not only be a day for mourning – it should be a day to think about our neighbors, our community, and our country. We can take a tragic day in our nation's history and turn it into a force for good."
On the Albany Insanity blog, this concern was raised: "What gives the government the right to require individuals to give three years service under the guise of 'volunteer' service? It is not explicit exactly who is required but I think they get the bill passed and then iron out the details. It talks about uniforms and 'camps.' They revise the word 'camps' and call it 'campus.' There is language about Seniors and Community organizations."
The blog noted, such work forces would be used for "pressing national and local challenges" that apparently could range from weather disasters to economic uncertainty.
At a Republican website, officials noted it authorizes funding for an Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans' Corps and Opportunity Corps.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from New York. It was approved in the House 321-105, with mostly GOP opposition. It now goes to the Senate.
WND reported earlier on Obama's Colorado Springs campaign speech when he sought a civilian security force as big and well-funded as the military – with a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars.
WND later reported when the official website for Obama, Change.gov, announced he would "require" all middle school through college students to participate in community service programs.
However, after a flurry of blogs protested children being drafted into Obama's proposed youth corps, officials softened the website's wording.
Originally, under the tab "America Serves," Change.gov read, "President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in under served schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps.
"Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year," the site announced.
Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WND, used his daily column first to raise the issue and then to elevate it with a call to all reporters to start asking questions.
"If we're going to create some kind of national police force as big, powerful and well-funded as our combined U.S. military forces, isn't this rather a big deal?" Farah wrote. "I thought Democrats generally believed the U.S. spent too much on the military. How is it possible their candidate is seeking to create some kind of massive but secret national police force that will be even bigger than the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force put together?
"Is Obama serious about creating some kind of domestic security force bigger and more expensive than that? If not, why did he say it? What did he mean?" Farah wrote.
Thanks for all you do! Live your values. Love your country. And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make aDIFFERENCE!
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Legislation intensifies fears about Obama’s civilian national security force.
The House passed a bill yesterday which includes disturbing language indicating young people will be forced to undertake mandatory national service programs as fears about President Barack Obama’s promised “civilian national security force” intensify.
Under section 6104 of the bill, entitled “Duties,” in subsection B6, the legislation states that a commission will be set up to investigate, “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.”
Section 120 of the bill also discusses the “Youth Engagement Zone Program” and states that “service learning” will be “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.”
“The legislation, slated to cost $6 billion over five years, would create 175,000 “new service opportunities” under AmeriCorps, bringing the number of participants in the national volunteer program to 250,000. It would also create additional “corps” to expand the reach of volunteerism into new sectors, including a Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps and Veterans Service Corps, and it expands the National Civilian Community Corps to focus on additional areas like disaster relief and energy conservation,” reports Fox News.
The Senate is also considering a similar piece of legislation known as the “Serve America Act,” which also includes language about “Youth Engagement Zones”.
Fears about Obama’s plans to create involuntary servitude were first stoked in July 2008, when Obama told a rally in Colorado Springs, “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”
Despite denials that Obama plans to institute a mandatory program of national service, his original change.gov website stated that Americans would be “required” to complete “50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year”. The text was only later changed to state that Americans would be “encouraged” to undertake such programs.
“The bill’s opponents — and there are only a few in Congress — say it could cram ideology down the throats of young “volunteers,” many of whom could be forced into service since the bill creates a “Congressional Commission on Civic Service,” reports Fox.
“We contribute our time and money under no government coercion on a scale the rest of the world doesn’t emulate and probably can’t imagine,” said Luke Sheahan, contributing editor for the Family Security Foundation. “The idea that government should order its people to perform acts of charity is contrary to the idea of charity and it removes the responsibility for charity from the people to the government, destroying private initiative.”
Lee Cary of the conservative American Thinker warns that Obama’s agenda is to, “tap into the already active volunteerism of millions of Americans and recruit them to become cogs in a gigantic government machine grinding out his social re-engineering agenda.”
CFR luminary Gary Hart hit back at critics, claiming in a Huffington Post piece that, “Resistance to expanded public service programs can be expected from the ideologically sclerotic, those who occupy the negative ground between government as the problem and government as our enemy.”
The frightening prospect of Obama’s mandatory government servitude is covered in-depth in Alex Jones’ new documentary blockbuster, The Obama Deception. Subscribe to prison planet.tv now to watch the film in high-quality, watch it for free here or buy the DVD, make copies and spread the word.
Thanks for all you do! Live your values. Love your country. And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make aDIFFERENCE!
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
BETWEEN THE LINES by: Jonathan Alter art:Marty Coleman March 7, 2009.
An Army of Changemakers.
An idea that began with Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps 76 years ago and exiends through several presidents in both parties (including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) is about to get turbocharged.
At a dinner for members of Congress at the White House last Wednesday, Michelle Obama approached George Miller, the mustachioed Californian who chairs the influential House Education and Labor Committee. The two had never met before. The first lady told the congressman how excited she was to learn that he was preparing to move legislation on Monday to greatly expand national service. After leaving corporate law and Chicago City Hall, Michelle had worked for a nonprofit, Public Allies, dedicated to expanding service. She has been passionate on the subject ever since and sees it as central to the mission of her husband's presidency. When President Obama had lunch with Miller the next day, Obama, speaking from long domestic experience, told him jokingly that his wife meant business: "Sounds to me like you better get that bill out of committee."
On Monday, Miller will announce that the GIVE Act (don't ask what the acronym means; too clunky) is on its way to passage by the House. Because representatives of the House, Senate and White House have been working together on a bipartisan basis for weeks, the skids are now greased for quick Senate passage of the Kennedy-Hatch Act for national service, the only specific piece of legislation the president mentioned in his address to Congress last month. Differences between the House and Senate versions will be minor.
By early April, Obama will sign landmark legislation expanding AmeriCorps from 75,000 participants to 250,000 over the next few years. This will take the national-service movement to a new level, create thousands of jobs and help young Americans pay for college. It's another sign that the president and his allies on Capitol Hill intend to redeem the promise of last year's campaign a helluva lot earlier than even his most ardent supporters expected.
"There's a perfect storm around service," says Heather Higginbottom, deputy domestic-policy adviser in the White House. "You've got a president and first lady who care about service, bipartisan support on the Hill and a commitment in the budget to expansion."
The outlines of what will pass, reported here for the first time:
A boost in the educational stipend offered in exchange for service to $5,350, with the provision that it will continue to rise in tandem with Pell grants. (Pay for full-time AmeriCorps service is about $11,000 a year.)
A $500 education award for middle-school and high-school students who take part in a "Summer of Service" or other service activities.
The establishment of a Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps and Veterans Services Corps.
The establishment of new ServeAmerica Fellowships.
The expansion of the Civilian Community Corps to include work on weatherization and other energy-conservation projects.
The expansion of the Peace Corps (to 16,000) and other existing programs.
The designation of September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
Miller stresses two new components in particular. "We wanted to make sure that veterans are a fundamental part of it," he says. "And all through the process we were trying to link students to education, education, education." The idea is that young people having trouble paying for school—or looking for a job after graduation from high school or college (hundreds of thousands this spring)—will consider national service. An increased college stipend in exchange for tutoring, mentoring, feeding and other service activities could be attractive for students who have been dropping out of college in record numbers.
Expanding national service is only the beginning of Obama's commitment to building an army of changemakers. A new White House Office of Social Entrepreneurship will look for ways to help thousands of nonprofit organizations improve the country. The "multiplier effect" of doing good offers "social stimulus" every bit as important as economic, though it provides that, too.
As hard times set in, working for social change is a twofer—a source of jobs and inspiration in a nation that badly needs both.
Thanks for all you do! Live your values. Love your country. And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make aDIFFERENCE!
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
featured artist: Ben Heine: Belgian political artist, caricaturist and sometimes photographer.
FROM A RECENT BEN HEINE Q&A by NEW AMERICAN DREAM FOUNDER, Mike Palacek ---> Palacek:Where do you think your passion came from? What are your personal experiences of oppression, militarism, imperialism?Heine: My passion started a long time ago when I was a little boy. I didn’t live in an oppressed country, I read about it in books and news articles. And I do my best to denounce all kinds of social injustices, crimes against humanity, human rights infringements, racism and oppression with my pencils and brushes. Palacek:How long have you been making a living as an artist? You don't have a day job, do you? Did you use to?Heine: Are you joking? Do you really think I make a living as a political artist? Ha ha, no, I don’t. I do have a full time day job. I teach French, English and History in a Belgian high school. This is very challenging and time consuming. A few months ago, I was working in a communication agency. I didn’t really like it. I think we, artists, must accept making jobs that have nothing related to our passion. That’s stupid, I know, but that’s what society obliges us to do. A good friend of mine and a very talented Spanish artist, Juan Kalvellido, used to work many years at Burger King and make his revolutionary political creations beside! Palecek:Let me see, how do I want to put this... Do Europeans give a shit about America? Do we really affect your lives? How about our wars, our government? Our movies, entertainers? Or, do you have your own culture, exclusive of us. I have never been to Europe, you understand.Heine: Very good question you ask here. Yes, in my opinion, all European countries and people are very concerned about America’s decisions. Many European countries are involved in the same wars (sad to say, but for instance, the Belgian government sent some troops in Afghanistan too…) Many Americans used to be Europeans in the past. American culture affects us in a strong way too. We have all your big Hollywood movies in our cinemas. I’m not sure that this is positive because this is somehow a “brain colonization”. And we actually don’t have much choice. And yes, we have our own culture. We have our own movies too, ha ha! Each country in Europe has rich traditions. Belgium is in the middle of Europe. From Brussels, I can travel to Amsterdam, Paris, London or Berlin in just a few hours. We all have different languages. Although we all have different customs and standards of living, we still feel Europeans.Palecek:What else would you like to add? What else should I have asked?Heine: I would like to put here some questions that were recently asked to me by Joe Szabo (Joe Szabo is an American cartoonist, author, editor, public speaker and founder of WittyWorld International Cartoon Magazine). He is currently making a worldwide survey for his upcoming book on “The Image of America”. Szabo:If you could think of one word that could describe the United States best, what would that be?Heine: The US, as everybody knows, is a multicultural country. It is the fruit of the old European colonization. The practice of intense slavery gave the US African people. Now, people from all around the world (especially from South American coutries) are coming to live in the US, because they consider it as an "El Dorado". The US is a mix of nationalities, of origins and roots, that's, according to me, an explanation of its cultural wealth, but also of the growing xenophobia, and the fear of the foreigner…FULL INTERVIEW HERE: http://www.newamericandream.net/i
Faire Part Hubert Heine - 25 novembre 2025
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C’est avec une infinie tristesse que je vous annonce le décès de mon Papa
bien aimé, Hubert Heine, survenu ce mardi 25 novembre 2025.
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The Associated Press • April 22, 2009 •Salinas Californian staff writer Kimber Solana contributed to this report.
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