What actually is happening. I am aware of "Crazy Charlie" Rangel and his back handed attempt to reintroduce a military draft.
(And I thought the Dems were trying to attract young voters? )
Just like the military draft, I think some citizens would best serve their country by staying far away from national service. An unmotivated, unwilling, or unable draftee consumes far more resources than they're hypothetically capable of generating.
I don't like the road this idea could go down:
"Obama will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year." Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need | Service
"So when I’m President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you’ll have done 17 weeks of service. We’ll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we’ll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, .... " ( Source: Text of Obama's Speech, DNC, 2008 ) (bolding added by me)
Quite coercive if you ask me and I'm especially concerned about the fact the requirements will come from the Federal govt rather than State/local
(Isn't mandatory "community service" a punishment we dole out to offenders in our criminal justice system?)
BTW - My 8th grader was positively outraged when she heard about it
...)
" (in my 60's), how many time that they (as a group) have voted. Of the five, only one (over the age of 25) had ever voted. ", indicating that she even thought he was probably performing "below expectations" in life. ...
Very interesting comment! I'll agree that this subject should probably be on the S/B forum, but if it was I would have not seen it (since I turned S/B off during "silly season"
However, two occurances this past week got me to thinking about the future of our country, when it seems that many young folk don't get "involved" by voting (or even register to vote) nor were they planning to vote in the November general election.
First occasion was at the vet's office, when the support staff (most under the age of 25) were talking about Obama, and how he is going to improve "the situation" (nope - I'm not going to give "my opinion" on any canadiate - that's not the point of my discussion). I asked the group that being a "senior person
The next stop (to pick up dog food at a speciality pet store), a women (about my age) was talking about her teenage years, and how great it was. I muttered a comment of "it really suc*ed" for me". She asked why, to which I responded that I was one of the draftees of the time. The subject of the 60's was quickly dropped.
She was talking about her son, and I asked her the same question about voting. She was proud to say that yes, he did vote, but she had to get him out of bed and take him to the polls. Nosy as I am, I asked how old he was. She responded "25". I responded just by shaking my head as I walked out the door. She just responed with a weak "yes, I know
Needless to say, my closing statement is that if you don't care to at least give the minimum in support of your country (and yes, it is "your country") by voting, something should be done to make that "obligation" valuable in a young (and sometimes old) person's mind.
Regardless of how you feel about the canidates, you do live in a country that despite its shortcomings, is still a great place to live in (thank goodness my grandparents - all four of them emigrated here).
BTW, in '68, at the age of 20, I was "over there" and was not eligible to vote (needed to be 21). I would have welcomed the opportunity to "express my view" through my vote. Anyway, since I became eligibe at age 21, I've never missed a vote, local or national, primary or general. My "canidate" may not win, but at least I've "spoken my mind" were it counts.
Just an observation/comment from an "old guy". Sorry about not responding to the OP's question, but by my signature, you'll see that I already "been there - done that"
- Ron
Or maybe 3 of the worst movies ever.A great book for young minds, made into one of the worst movies ever!
She would probably feel differently if the right to vote was taken away from her.
don't denigrate the [-]crapbox[/-] soapbox ... it has a very nice feature ... you can switch turn it off! (which is quite satisfying.)
if it were to happen, she might never realize it.
I've voted in every election since I was old enough, too, and in nearly 30 years I've never had to go to the polls. Never. Absentee ballots make the process much easier and much more likely to attract more participants. It's also a great way to spend an hour or two discussing politics with your kids while you sit around filling out the ballot.
Hey, Neil Patrick Harris & Denise Richards did the best they could... (wait for it, REW & CFB) with what they had...A great book for young minds, made into one of the worst movies ever!
