A New Patriotism
Today, President Obama, who inspired us all with his pledge to "make service a cause of my Presidency" will sign the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. This legislation, which Obama boldly called for in his February Address to Congress, is a milestone for the service movement, and the largest expansion of civilian service since the Depression Era Civilian Conservation Corps. In addition to honoring Senator Kennedy for his tremendous leadership in public service, it received strong bipartisan support with the Senate voting in favor 79 to 19 and the House voting 275 to 149.
But the Serve America Act is more than a service milestone. It contains the seeds for developing a new public philosophy for how we attack an array of persistent societal challenges, from the high school dropout crisis, to poverty and homelessness, to climate change.
For the past 75 years, America has been governed by two major public philosophies. First, in response to the depression and then World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) completely transformed the role of the federal government. He established it as the center of energy, new ideas, solutions, delivery mechanisms and regulation with his whole alphabet soup--for every problem start a new federal government agency--approach.
FDR's governing philosophy lasted until Ronald Reagan, who in his inaugural address, flipped FDR's philosophy on its head when he said: "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." Reagan tapped into a feeling that government had grown too bureaucratic and resistant to change. Reagan's governing philosophy began to run out of gas with the Katrina disaster of 2005 and then ended with the complete melt down of the financial markets last fall. We've discovered if we simply view government as the problem, we end up with ineffective government.
Further, neither FDR's philosophy nor Reagan's is appropriate for the unique challenges and opportunities we face today. President Obama acknowledged this stalemate when he stated in his Inaugural address: "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works."
It is not surprising we would be searching for a new public philosophy at this time.
As Arthur Schlesinger Jr. argued, American history moves in cycles between "public purpose" and "private interest," a cycle that begins anew approximately every 30 years. It has been 30 years since the Proposition 13 California Tax revolt of 1978 which propelled the Reagan revolution, to the election of Barack Obama in 2008. And, we are now, at the beginning of a new cycle of reform. Both political parties, if they are smart, will compete to be the party of reform and to define a new public philosophy. The one that does so most successfully will likely govern the country for at least the next generation or two.
What are the key elements of a new public philosophy and how does the Kennedy Serve America Act advance it?
The first key tenet of a new public philosophy should be we need Big Citizenship not Big Government. (My partner in founding City Year, Michael Brown, coined the phrase Big Citizenship 15 years ago.) In developing a new approach to addressing our 21st Century challenges, we need to look to what has always been America's greatest natural resource - We the People. From our revolutionary citizen soldiers, to the numerous voluntary associations that so impressed De Tocqueville, to the abolitionists, the suffragists, trade unionists and the civil rights marchers, it has always been citizens that have led great change in America.
The Kennedy Serve America Act provides for a new citizen army to tackle our pressing problems in education, the environment, fighting poverty, public health and supporting our Veterans. It establishes issue focused corps while growing AmeriCorps from the current 75,000 people a year to 250,000 people a year. It encourages millions of Americans to engage in traditional volunteer service through a new volunteer generation matching fund, Volunteers for Prosperity which will support work overseas, new service learning efforts in schools and on college campuses and more.
Second, a new public philosophy needs to look to entrepreneurs and innovators in both the private and social sectors to create the new solutions for our most pressing challenges.
This has worked throughout our history. Entrepreneurs invented the innovations of first the industrial revolution and now the information revolution that has made our economy the most productive in the world. And social entrepreneurs invented the public school, the public library, the settlement houses and so much more that has sustained our civic life.
The Kennedy Serve America Act recognizes the social entrepreneurship revolution. It establishes a new "Social Innovation Fund" to take promising innovative organizations to scale. It also provides fellowships to seed new generations of social entrepreneurs from Millennials to Boomers, who will invent the next Habitat for Humanity, Harlem Children's Zone, Share Our Strength, Teach For America or Youthbuild.
Third, rather than looking to government alone to address our problems, or relying exclusively on the private marketplace, we need new partnerships among government, the private sector, and the non-profit sector each doing what each does best.
For every issue we confront, we need to ask: What role can citizens play in solving this problem? What role can entrepreneurs play? What role should the government play? What should the private sector do? And what should the non-profit sector do?
21st Century solutions and systems will need to engage all five sectors in powerful combinations, if we are going to invent the new holistic solutions to our challenges.
In particular, the government's role should continue to change from being the primary deliverer of services, to one of setting big goals, establishing the rules of the game, conducting oversight and regulation, and using incentives by growing what works, and eliminating funding for programs that fail.
The Kennedy Serve America Act recognizes this new role for government and the need for new public-private partnerships. Its new programs are not federally run like the 60's era Peace Corps or VISTA. Rather, they will be established through the Corporation for National and Community Service funding the best local, state and national organizations through a competitive grants process that requires matching funds from the private sector.
Fourth, a new public philosophy recognizes that we need to modernize. We need to take full advantage of the myriad of possibilities for new technological breakthroughs to empower citizens, make government more effective and efficient, and new partnerships possible. As President Obama has argued we need "Ipod Government."
Modernization also means while not relying exclusively on the private market to meet our needs, we do need to use time-tested market principles in constructing new solutions. These include: competition, transparency, accountability, choice, standards to measure effectiveness and experimentation. We need to recapture our risk-taking spirit and move beyond stultified bureaucracies.
What should we call this new Public Philosophy for the 21st Century? Perhaps a New Patriotism sums it up best. For, at its heart, this new public philosophy and the Kennedy Serve America Act is an attempt to call on all citizens and sectors to put country before self interest, to say that we need all hands on deck if we are finally to come to grips with our pressing challenges in education, health care, the environment, poverty and more. Another great Kennedy challenged us years ago to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." All of us, as individual citizens, as companies and organizations, and as communities, need to reflect upon that "ask not" question and to the best of our abilities live up to its challenge if we are to seize the opportunities and meet the test of our times.
The Kennedy Serve America Act is a major step towards our doing so.
Alan Khazei is the Founder and CEO of Be The Change, Inc. and the Co-Founder of City Year.
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MILITARY DRAFT!! MILITARY DRAFT!! MILITARY DRAFT!!!
Settle down, trollies..
People were in much greater danger of a military draft under Mccain than they are under Obama.
Great; the new Brown Shirts..
Truly
Oh Oh! Guess I better throw out my CCCP hammer and sickle tee-shirt I bought recently in St. Petersburg and get some of them Brown Shirts. But, I refuse to shave my head and goose step.
The ignorance of some really confounds me
This mattered to me, until Obama announced he was going to let torturers and murderers go free. Now, supporting community service doesn't seem so significant.
I know - I feel saddened too that it seems the torturers and murderers will not be held accountable - and I will be keeping the pressure up in support of changing that and making sure that a special prosecutor or something is done
however, just because one decision feels so wrong - doesn't mean I can't support a good decision and volunteering is needed and I plan to do my part in support
Doesn't matter if you agree... that's the way it works.
Obama is not letting anyone go free. Go read the updates.
Hopefully, one of the things that this money will help change is the ability to "advertise" the positions/
I AM ready to sign up to help, but give me the 5 Ws: who, what, where, when and why.
serve.gov and volunteerm
http://www
I did my year of AmeriCorps service with http://www
What is sad is that there are so few comments here. It is not surprising to me that even among progressives, just the mention of community service and suddenly everybody is GONE. People if the ME ME ME crap does not stop we are surely doomed to fade into mediocrity.
I have been doing community organizing/service for 13 years now and it is the single most meaningful and important thing I have ever done. I am not receiving big compensation or even credit. I do derive immense satisfaction and pride at the fact that I TOOK ACTION. I helped change a problem into a positive. Hopefully, my community and country as a whole are better in the long run because of it.
However, the intense selfishness of the larger segment of society does not bode well for widespread success of this program. Usually, a majority of people I have met that are doing community service either have a college scholarship in mind or have delusions of fame, fortune and recognition for contributions made. What about doing something because it is HELPFUL? without any strings? without guarantee of anything except self satisfaction?
Well, the trollies are having a meeting on how to spin this into Obama reinstating the military draft (ironic seeing as how they're the most hardcore war supporters).
But there is no excuse for the rest of us to be out here supporting this bill. I've done community service since college and I have learned so much from it. It's a refreshing change from the "ME FIRST! GIMME GIMME GIMME!" frame of mind we seem to be stuck in as a whole.
I agree with you. Everyone should be forced into serving our fellow man and our government (the latter especially). Choice has ruined this country. Our benevolent leaders, experts, and think tanks know what should be done with us. Let's hand the reigns over to them so I can stop this incessant thinking.
"Forced" into serving? "Our benevolent leaders, experts and think tanks know what should be done with us?" I hope that you are being sarcastic in this post.
I just read this here. I knew a little about it previously. I was reading comments to see if there was some practical info about it. There were a couple of url , or links, given out.
All I got out of this article was that the Serve America Act is about "a new public philosophy" -- what the heck is that? And whose philosophy? I don't want my chidren living by someone's else philosophy, especially the Government's or Teddy Kennedy's. It sounds frightening and mind controlling.
Oh yes, indymaggie, your children will be dragged off of their schoolyards by UN troops in black helicopters to secret re-education camps where they will be be...
Never mind...
You have no room to talk about living by someone else's philosophy and complain about mind control after what you swallowed whole the last 8 years.
Where does it say that your children have to do anything? They don't have to follow anyone's philosophy although the spirit of volunteerism would be a great philosphy to teach your children. You should wish your family had the history of charitable funding and good works that the Kennedy family has. I have never understood the intense criticizing of the Kennedys. You don't have to agree with their politics but you cannot deny their contributions to the United States.
*hehe.....
Oh boy, more waste, fraud, and abuse funded by tax money.
The amount of money is so miniscule that your point is MOOT.
How can "we the people" volunteering to help "we the people" be considered, in any way, to be waste, fraud or abuse? If - and surely it's a big if - this is handled with the transparency and cooperation as it's described, there's no reason why this couldn't be an absolute success.
Or is it helping people that you object to?
Let's see some transparency first . . . any transparency . . before we assume that any new program will be transparent.
Hey 20 percenter, maybe you should try READING...
1 - this is not a lot of money
2 - it might be good for you to come out from the basement and actually give something back to your community, instead of shouting "me first! me first!"
"With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."
Finally. Fifty years later, but finally.
OK, libs: your turn. You all pledged to serve him!
Plus presumably he's going to pay you (to volunteer?).
Get out there. He's no leader if no one shows up to follow him.
How bitter are you?
Sad ...
Where were you and your fellow cons when king georgie and deferment dick asked you to step up and serve?
that's what I thought...
I've been volunteering since President Obama was in primary school. I'm glad to see that my community work is finally recognized as patriotic. If I never get a dime from the U.S. government that will be okay; but I would appreciate some recognition of my hard work instead of being sneered at for being a chump.
What's your point?
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