Like Moyers and Nader, Kerry Taps Into Community and Civic Responsibility

[DrFunkenstein]

One of the things I really enjoyed about Nader's ideas in 2000 was the return to the ideas of community and civic responsibility that have always made America strong. Bill Moyers has also come back to these ideas over and over again. I've noticed many similarities between Moyers idea of America and Kerry's. This is one of them.

Kerry is bursting at the seams with ideas here. I have tried to get to the meat of his ideas, and even had to cut some proposals out for length. Sorry if it is still too long, but I think it is worth every word.

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A new "Service for College" initiative will call on young people both to help strengthen America's security and to address unmet needs. For every young person who gives two years of service, America will pay the cost for four years of their state's public college tuition.

I will set a goal within the next decade of enlisting five hundred thousand young people a year in Service for College - more than one out of seven young Americans working side by side, in many different ways, but with a common commitment to our best hopes and values.

We have a good beginning with AmeriCorps - which in the past ten years has gone from a good idea to a great success. Thousands of young people have served in inner city and rural schools, in building low income housing and in rebuilding communities in the aftermath of natural disasters. State and local initiative has led the way and bureaucracy in Washington, which has been held to a minimum, has gotten out of the way.

AmeriCorps members already are playing a part in providing homeland security. All around the country, they have participated in emergency drills. They have helped the Red Cross to conduct disaster preparedness training and mobilized local communities to assemble emergency response plans.

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Service members can participate in coordinating efforts in hospitals, searching out vulnerabilities at our ports, and seeking out and showing local volunteers how to do their part.

With their help, we can achieve a national goal of every child reading by the third grade - - and they can assist teachers, parents, and administrators in making sure that our schools are once again the best in the world.

Those who serve will work in summer and after-school programs where more American children can learn in safety and grow up as strong citizens. Servers will battle soil erosion in our rural areas, bring new life to urban parks in our cities, and join with groups like Youth Build and Habitat for Humanity to build affordable housing in America's neighborhoods.

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The Police Corps is an idea I've championed from the start; it has been one of the most innovative initiatives of the last decade. As President, I will expand it and it will continue to provide an even higher level of benefit for all four years of college.

I propose that all high school students should also be required to do community service before they graduate. Today, the state of Maryland, many school districts around the country, and many high schools - including some here in New Hampshire - already require service.

Communities can design these efforts to meet their own specific needs whether it is providing after-school activities for younger kids, tutoring them in reading, spending time with seniors, or helping to clean up and renew neighborhoods.

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High School Service should be mandatory for students, but it should not be another unfunded mandate from Washington. Again and again, the federal government has issued demands and then left states like New Hampshire with the burden of paying for them. I propose that the federal government fully fund this service requirement - or states will not have to implement it.

Teenagers thirteen to seventeen are too old for child care and too young for many summer jobs. Parents don't want to leave them alone all summer but too many families don't have any alternative. I propose Summers of Service that will involve teenagers in the work of their communities. Supervised by AmeriCorps volunteers, they can visit nursing homes, clean up local areas, or teach seniors computer skills - and, in turn, they will earn a grant to apply to their college education.

In another, very specific way, more Americans can do something vital for the nation through a new Community Defense Service comprised of hundreds of thousands of people in thousands of neighborhoods. Like crime watches in many of our neighborhoods, Community Defense Service Captains will help show Americans how they and their families can best prepare for the threats we face.

These volunteers will provide their neighbors with solid, reliable information about biological, chemical or other terrorist threats. AmeriCorps members will organize the effort. The Department of Homeland Security would offer leadership. Firefighters and police officers will offer training and education. And the members of the Community Defense Service will be there working side by side with first defenders whenever and wherever they are needed.

http://www.johnkerry.com/news/speeches/spc_2003_0519.html

[phillybri]

1. Fantastic post....

You're the man, Doc!

[DemDogs]

2. Ideas are great -- they are just Edwards's ideas first

You have to credit Kerry for stealing from the best.
No one owns these ideas, and it would be great if every candidate adopted them, but just for the record, Edwards put these some of these ideas out a year before Kerry and others six months before Kerry -- look at his community service speech and education speech. They are on the Senate website, I think.

[DrFunkenstein]

3. I Checked The John Edward Wesite

This is what came up. I couldn't find his speech.

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[sandnsea]

5. Edwards is good on education

and good on community service. I think kids would be able to use the ten hours of work while in college to do community service, sort of like Kerry's plan. Not sure, but that's what rings a bell.

[sandnsea]

4. Been on Kerry's web site since day one

These aren't new, maybe just the first time you've seen them. And some of these ideas have been around for literally years. Clinton introduced Americorps, but I had heard Barbara Mikulski talking about it back in the 80's. I like Edwards' idea of the first year of college free when you're willing to work 10 hours a week because it's simple for kids to grasp. Get the grades, go to college. Once kids have gone through a simple process to get in, they'll figure out the rest of it. I also like the two years service, four years college plan too. Both alot better than Bush's tough shit plan.