Free Press – September 20, 2007

Bernie O’Connor Law School, Compulsory Service and Time Magazine,

Dear friends,

Good morning. “Don,” my pen pal, recently sent a well-written letter to the editor, criticizing my position about national, compulsory service. I’m delighted that Time Magazine has come to my rescue. More on that in a moment.

But first, I saw Father Bernie O’Connor, the energetic and very capable President of DeSales University the other day. I have tremendous respect for him because Father Bernie’s never hesitant to give an opinion on sensitive subjects. I teased him about his university.

“Father Bernie,” I quipped, “DeSales is making great academic strides. Shouldn’t it have a law school?”

He smiled and replied, “Stay tuned.”

What does that mean? Hmm…I wonder.

On another subject, Father Bernie wasn’t coy when I told him that I was miffed at the Pope. “Two months ago, the Vatican released a document reasserting the primacy of the Catholic Church,” Michelle Boorstein wrote in the Washington Post (Sept. 15). “The document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called other Christian communities defective, separated, and suffering from a wound because they do not recognize the dominance of the Pope.”

“I’m not Roman Catholic but I don’t want to be defective,” I complained. “How does the Pope get away with making pronouncements like that?” Father Bernie just smiled, patted me on the arm and gave me a reassuring look. I think he was telling me to calm down and try another topic. But he dismissed me in such a disarming way, that I wasn’t offended. I’m telling you…Father Bernie is a genius.

And now, back to my pen pal. I must sound like an old saw. You know that I’ve been grousing about compulsory national service for years. I believe that every young person would be more ready for college, be a better citizen, and be more likely to be a community volunteer if he or she served America for two years…no exception. At age 18 or upon graduation from high school, every young female or male would choose a non-military or military function. And at the conclusion of the two years, each would receive a college education…just like the old G.I. bill, which worked so well after the Second World War.

My pen pal doesn’t agree with me.

Well, it appears that I have an ally in Time Magazine…at least partially. In its September 10^th issue, the cover story led with, “The Case for National Service…Millions of Americans want to help their community, their country, their world.”

Time Magazine began with a few observations. “Today, the two central acts of democratic citizenship are voting and paying taxes,” it began, “but most bemoan the fact that only about half of us vote and don’t do much more than send in our returns on April 15.”

Time says that there’s plenty to be pessimistic about. “[Americans] see a public school system with 38 percent of fourth graders unable to read at a basic level; they see the cost of health insurance escalating as 47 million people go uninsured; they see a government that responded ineptly to a hurricane in New Orleans; and they see a war whose ends they do not completely value or understand,” Time continued.

But while confidence in our government is near an all time low, volunteerism and civic participation since the 1970’s are near all time highs. “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,” Time says.

Time listed the states with the best and the worst volunteer rates. The best is Utah at 45.9 percent and the worst is Nevada at 17.5 percent. Pennsylvania ranked 21^st with 30.4 percent of its adult population engaged as volunteers. Americans volunteered 8.1 billion hours to volunteerism in 2006 involving 61.2 million of us. Twenty-seven percent of the nation gives community service.

Time Magazine opined that devoting a year or more to national service, whether military or civilian, should become a countrywide rite of passage, the common expectation and widespread experience of virtually every young American. “In a 2002 poll, 70 percent of Americans thought universal service was a good idea,” Time added.

However, Time and I parted company on one crucial point. Time’s plan would be voluntary, not mandatory. It would place economic inducements to convince young people to sign up for service.

One of Time’s ideas was to create an Education Corps…tutors, teachers, and volunteers to address problems with youth. “A quarter of all school-age kids do not have a supervised activity between 3 and 6 pm on schooldays,” the article said. “Studies show that students who spend no time in after-school programs are almost 50 percent more likely to have used drugs and 37 percent more likely to become teen parents.

“Right now, 50 percent of the high school dropouts come from 15 percent of the schools in the U.S., most of them located in high poverty city neighborhoods and throughout the South,” Time said.

Congressman Patrick Murphy is leaning toward my version of compulsory national service, emphasizing that each young adult would have the option to choose military or non-military service. He’ll be testing the waters with his fellow members of congress and, most importantly, the voters in his district.

We’ll see if national service gets some traction as the presidential election looms near.

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith