The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, GIVE Act, was first passed by the House of Representatives March 18, and the Senate has just added its final revisions to the piece of legislation, which calls for national service.
The bill, HR 1388, which was sent to President Obama for his signature last week, would drastically increase volunteer programs in the United States.
Opposition to the bill came early on when the House’s version of the GIVE Act included a section which discussed setting up a committee to decide “whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed.”
In the version passed by the Senate, entitled “The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act” the mandatory language was dropped.
This means that service to the United States, both community and national service, is now encouraged and not required…for now.
According to opencongress.org, middle school and high school students participating during the summer in a national service program could have monetary incentive, $500, which would be applied towards future college costs.
Targeting young pupils with bribes of money in exchange for their willingness to participate in government programs takes politics to an extreme.
Thrusting party ideology on the youth, means molding susceptible minds before they get the chance to make their own decisions, a practice employed by infamous dictators.
The toning down of some language in HR 1388 has not assuaged all fears about future plans for compulsory community service and possibly a national civilian security force.
In a 2006 interview with Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, went over a program that would prepare civilians to be trained in the event of a terrorist or chemical attack.
“We’re going to have universal civil defense training, somewhere between the ages of 18 to 25 you will do three months of training,” Emanuel said.
Emanuel said the civil defense training, or civil service, would unite Americans having them share a similar experience. The training would be done through the state national guard, and originally was labeled as “required,” before controversy caused the specific word to be removed on Obama’s change.gov website.
Again, the civil service is not required…for now.
“If you’re worried about are you going to have to do 50 jumping jacks the answer is yes,” Emanuel said in the interview.
He hinted that the training would be military in style.
This three month training could potentially look like basic training, which could easily be a precursor to bringing back the draft.
If Americans were already trained in basic military operations, there would be no delay in calling them up for a war.
The voluntary community service angle is being highlighted now; however, Obama’s website originally said that Americans would be required to participate in “50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year”.
It was during his campaign that the wording was changed to read “encouraged” rather than “required.”
The idea of mandatory charity, which one day could be enforced by the government, is contrary to the idea of charity itself. It’s not that volunteering and charity are bad ideas in and of themselves, but people should have the freedom to take the initiative and responsibility to help their communities.
The GIVE Act is not the first proposed national service legislation. Others include, the Service for All Ages Initiative, the Summer of Service Act, the Semester of Service Act, the Encore Service Act and the ACTION Act, which are aimed towards the young, the elderly and everyone in between.
It was back in July 2008 that Obama called for a system of national service in front of a crowd in Colorado.
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set,” Obama said. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
If you do not want to be a part of this “civilian national security force,” then it’s time to open your eyes and ears. Know what your legislature is attempting to pass in your name and let your voice be heard.