Isn’t Volunteering Supposed to Be Voluntary?
in the early morning on Sunday, the 9th of November 2008 by Katie
Are you really volunteering you are forced to do it? And what is the line between “mandatory volunteering” (ie, forced work without pay) and slavery?
Michelle Malkin has written about Obama’s latest site “Change.gov”. She has picture of one of the pages on the site.
I will admit. I am not a proponent for the forcing of school aged children to volunteer. I believe that this is something for the family to decide, and it not the business of anyone else. I am against mandatory volunteering (an oxymoron, in itself).
I come from a family that stressed the work ethic. I got a job at the earliest legal age that I could. It was a minimum wage ($3.15/hour) job, that was extremely demanding (typical weekend work days were from 12 – 14 hours long, with one 1/2 hour break for the day). This job taught me to work hard. It also taught me that college would be in my future (so that I could avoid working jobs like that for the rest of my life). Why couldn’t a family choose to go allow those lines, when they are trying bring up their children to become independent adults?
Let’s see, Obama wants middle school and high school students to volunteer for 50 hours. Do I need to point out that many middle schoolers are too young to have a job? And then he wants college students to volunteer for 100 hours. Can all college students even afford this? With college tuition costs skyrocketing, many of these student HAVE to work a job to earn enough to go to college. Can they really work 2 1/2 weeks of non-paid labor, in addition? And who is to support these working, unpaid college students?
And where will it stop? Are we looking at a future that all Americans will HAVE to volunteer? And who decides which volunteer experiences qualify?
Will the government start forcing it’s citizens to perform major work projects on a “volunteer” level? The Egyptians did this, hence the pyramids, but is this a place that we really want to go?
Another part of the Change.gov site that should be worrying to people. He is developing a network (email and text messaging) of people to help support his ideas. Example: Evil Republican Senators are blocking the vote for one of Obama’s pet projects. He will then send an immediate alert to his network. They are then supposed to immediately flood the Evil Senator’s office and email with complaints, in an attempt to pressure the Senator to do the Obamamessiah’s bidding.
Does any of this get you thinking? Or, are you still drinking the Kool-Aid?
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November 9th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I’m a gonna do it… yes I am. Break one of the “laws of cyberspace” just because I don’t care.
“a network (email and text messaging) of people to help support his ideas” = Sturmabteilung.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung
November 9th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Chad, I know a woman whose ex-husband was a child in Nazi Germany, and she tells me he “violated Godwin’s law” with regard to the country’s next President. He, of anyone, would know. So I doubt you should consider yourself to be out of line.
Just remember what the Democrats said in 2004: 52% is not a mandate from the people.
That said, I wouldn’t be a good Centrist if I didn’t point out that Obama backed off on the “requirement” part after people criticized it. Maybe — just maybe — he wants badly enough to do a good job that he’s listening.
November 9th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
We can hope that’s the case that he will quickly move to center. My feeling is that he cares more about his place in history and will move to center as an opportunist rather than being a demagogue of the left and ruling the country like his history to this point.
If he does the first he stands a good chance of a second term. Try the second choice and the 48% will grow with the masses of those who thought they were promised so much only to be denied “free mortgages and cars” when it came time to deliver.
November 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I hope you’re right, and he moderates his views. But, I’m not counting on it.
Yes, I think he will do what it takes to win the next election. But, many of his votes were from the way-left. And he made many promises. People really believe that he will pay for their mortgages and their gas. So, who will be disillusioned first? The moderates who were hoping for change, any change, or the extremists who think that he is the messiah, and will save them.
And, he has Reid and Pelosi, chomping at the bit, ready to radicalize. They had managed to be re-elected time after time, and they are far left of center. Will he go their way? Because they would love to have him.
And Biden is no moderate either. Or his White House Chief of Staff. And his own voting record shows him to be on the far left.
And why would he think that he would need to moderate? He got elected, with a voting record that made him the most “lib” senator on the block. He out libbed Reid, Biden, Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton, etc….
I will hope, because that is all I can do. And, I will watch, because I don’t trust him.
November 9th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Indentured servitude is not too far off from slavery. I’m biting my tongue, but gads, the election was only last week.
Any child of mine (I have one in college and one in high school) who will be mandated to do “volunteer” service work will get their orders from ME. Unless the government has decided to take over my job as mother, and if that’s the case, well… a mama cougar is a feisty animal to tame. I’ve drilled it into my children’s heads since they were small that we must always give back to the community. I’ve served with my church, the PTA, the DAR, Center of the Beatitutdes, given blood, was a Girl Scout leader for 7 years, and organized a number of free film nights at the school for families on limited income and conducted food drives for our women’s crisis shelter. So, His Highness Obama has a lot of gall to suggest that my children, or anyone else’s children, need to be his foot soldiers. They are already immersed in community service, as well as having full school and sports loads. Trust in that our many volunteer service efforts won’t be on Obama’s “list” of ACORN, HeadStart, Planned Parenthood, or the slew of others that he deigns “worthy” of help. Our most important project now is writing letters and assembling care packages to send to our awesome heroes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. Is that on the list, Obama???
November 10th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Sturmabteilung?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabotage#Political_sabotage
Can the ‘Good Guys’ sign-up on BlOwJoB’s change.org site, and as a result of O’Bummers propoganda messages just as instantaneously fire-off countering, sabotage messages to Evil Republican Senators?