Every child in the US needs to work a year for his or her government. We need to mandate this rule, and we need to do it fast. This is not a partisan issue. This is about restoring faith in our country. This is about helping at least two generations of Americans understand that we are by far and away the least imperfect form of government in the world. We are a noble experiment, warts and all. This is an amazing country, but it is being ripped apart. A year of service would help us regain our footing. Now, for a little background-
Division is not new to citizens of the United States. Perhaps the one common denominator since the inception of these United States has been constant disagreement between diverse factions about how we should run these United States! It didn’t take long for Jefferson and his minions to turn on Washington and Hamilton soon after Washington took office as our first President. Thus began the battle over states’ rights that continues to this day. Then of course there was that small conflagration some remember as the Civil War and others recall as the War of Northern Aggression. Either way, it was a pivotal divide that only years of bloodshed and decades of trauma slowly healed. We witnessed the baby boomers protesting all life as they knew it in the 1960’s. The Vietnam War may have been the trigger, but the antipathy toward anything deemed “traditional” dominated their thoughts and actions. The country was very divided.
The liberals would disagree, but a review of US history since WWII would validate the premise that we finally entered a period of relative calm shortly after Ronald Reagan took office. In fact, we experienced nearly twelve years of that relative calm during the Reagan-Bush years. Alas, all good things come to an end. The Clinton administration inherited a resurgent Bush economy and rode through eight years of economic growth, but something happened. Partisan divide was rediscovered, and the quest to take Bill Clinton down became more important than the mission of bipartisan leadership to drive America forward. And the beat goes on. Since Bill Clinton was President, every administration has faced an opposition party more interested in destroying the President than in running the country.
The left’s quest to destroy Donald Trump has set new lows on a bar that had already been lowered to the ground. Let me be clear for the umpteenth time; I do not like Donald Trump. That does not mean, however, that I can abide by the constant onslaught from the main stream media (MSM) and political left. Theirs is a false narrative. It is a endless attack based mostly on innuendo or contrived data. It is actually shameful. Let me be clear for the umpteenth plus one time; I don’t like the President’s petty tweets, and I know he too stretches the truth to serve his purpose. And I am happy to call him on it. The difference is that the left and MSM will never call themselves out on their endless drivel.
We are witnessing the dumbing down of America. Our day to day lives are one big reality tv show. We can’t go anywhere to watch an unfettered, unbiased report of the daily news. The editors decide what news to report and the decision is decided by the network’s political agenda. To that end, the President’s Twitter activity is genius. He has circumvented the media, knowing that more than nine out of ten times that his name is mentioned by the MSM the viewer’s inference will be negative.
One of the unfortunate byproducts of the partisan divide we have experienced since the early Clinton years is that we have two generations of young Americans (the Millennials and those right behind them) who have never seen their government function properly. All they have ever known is ineffective, bickering, petty government practicing inaction. They have grown up in a cynical, skeptical world, with little reason to have faith, confidence, or trust in any public servant. To them, WWII is ancient history. The Holocaust is something that may or may not have happened. After all, there are leaders in the world who say it didn’t occur. They did not live to experience the atrocities and murders perpetrated upon their own people by the likes of Stalin and Mao, all in the name of a superior socialist state.
Socialism sounds great, and when a folksy senator from Vermont talks about everything being free, well, what’s wrong with that? When another senator from Massachusetts (who claims to be 1/16th Native American) preaches the evils of capitalism, it sure does make those who actually drive the engine of the US economy sound pretty evil, doesn’t it? Did you know more US citizens under thirty years of age now think socialism is a better baseline for living than capitalism? What on earth hath we wrought?
Today’s title is “Service”. I don’t mean everyone has to put on a uniform and jump out of airplanes. Service means the Peace Corps, working in inner cities, libraries, schools, the military, you name it. Kids from all socio-economic strata do not know how special this country is. Millions of young Americans have actually been indoctrinated to believe we are not a special country. A year of service would help kids understand the United States and its role in the world. It would be a gap year; age 18. Every American kid is paid to serve his or her country for one year. Then it is off to college or vocational school, or straight to work. There are no losers. The millions who have never had to work or contribute to society because they are economically well off will benefit from a dose of reality. On the other side of the spectrum, the millions who have never worked because they live in an underclass that is artificially propped up by an entitlement state will also experience first hand the joy of contributing to a greater good while actually being paid to do so.
In short, by instilling a sense of service and working for something bigger than oneself will help us rebuild the bedrock that drove our unique national spirit for centuries. We are a nation of people who always served when called and always volunteered without being called. We are not that nation anymore. Let’s get the politicians off their partisan benches and agree together that we can steer the mighty ship of state back on course. Let’s do our younger and future generations a huge favor by invoking the mantra of the late John Kennedy. “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” (click here for clip) Surely we can all agree that is transcends political lines and would be a great step forward for the United States. Yes?
More to follow-