“Been there. Done that...”

In a resource shrinking global village where WMDs proliferate, it’s essential that many more understand the complexities of place and the similarities behind every face that comes from working with others turning needs into opportunities.

In the developed world where pixels dominate so many experiences, it’s essential that twittering videos not be the foundation upon which a nation’s world view, character, and public policy is built.

That’s why it’s crucial when that rare opportunity arrives where public sentiment supports it, influential nations involve millions, not just tens of thousands, in serving in different places with different faces.

The Serve America Act is a fine step toward involving tens of thousands in service. It does not, however, involve enough in ameliorating the world’s tsunami of problems and doesn’t groom enough world citizens to be perspicacious enough to avoid stumbling into the vortex of tomorrow’s storms.

Doubling the size of the Peace Corps to about 15,000 gets it back to where it was in 1969, when explosive crises were fewer. Doubling Americorps in a nation of 300+ million, where poverty, homelessness, unemployment, class sizes, mother nature’s devastations… are soaring, leaves many needs that more serving Americans could address.

Visionary President Kennedy birthed the Peace Corps to eradicate the soft, materialistic, and Ugly American image tagged on us in the 1960’s. He wanted the Peace Corps to grow quickly to 100,000 and remarked that when it hit “a million” it would be significant. Since its 1961 inception, around 170,000 Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) have completed service.

Imagine how different the handling of radicalism would be today if the last of:

· 1,739 PCVs hadn’t left Afghanistan’ after serving from 1962-79.

· 462 PCVs hadn’t left Pakistan after serving from 1961-67.

· 295 PCVs hadn’t left Libya in 1969, without any having worked in places like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine,

In 2008 we started and privatized the training and placement of Human Terrain Teams (HTT), paying each team member (sociologists, anthropologists, etc.) about $10,000 per month. We then placed a handful of HTT teams with our military in Afghanistan, so they could survey natives on how to win their hearts and minds. Gadzooks, for the cost of training a couple HTT members for a month, the government could have read Three Cups of Tea and hosted a brainstorming session of solid PCVs and had the answer for winning hearts and minds.

Along with a looming depression, President Obama inherits a much uglier American image and dangerous world than JFK faced. Hurting Americans know this. More than at any time since the Depression, they would support:

· A ROBUST call to service.

· Serving alongside World Service Corps members from other nations.

· Using the American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals (AWSC) and, if needed, the Fair Tax Bracket Reinstitution Act (FTBRA), to involve the mega rich of America and the world to contribute to service that makes the world saner.

More than at any time since World War II, Americans would support simple, fair tax reform, which People’s Lobby’s proposed FTBRA provides. As drafted, the FTBRA covers any potential shortfall in funding that some might use to argue against placing 21 million AWSC volunteers into service over the next 27 years.

America needs to:

· Provide more jobs, environmental solutions, learning aides, caregivers…

· Be more peacefully involved in addressing the world’s resource shortages, poverty, homelessness, genocides, disaster relief…

· Learn from such service, so that we escape from juvenile public policies that lead us into costly wars that destroy community building efforts.

· Share in the economic boost that an outside-the-box and ROBUST AWSC provides.

President Kennedy was admired for smarts and charisma, but his most lasting legacy produces healthy, visionary world citizens -- and stems from birthing the Peace Corps. VISTA and the Legal Aide programs that sprouted from the Peace Corps vision laid a foundation for today’s community activism, which may have planted the garden that produced today’s president.

In today’s much more needy world, President Obama’s fast break should go big and put millions, not just tens of thousands, of world citizens into world service.

Periodically, winds of change blow strongly enough in the right direction that many ships of state can carry their citizens to peaceful, bountiful shores. With gales of economic need and service filling the air, President Obama could build a legacy that grows a healthier world for every family’s Malia and Sasha.

The Serve America Act is a nice cross over step to the hoop. But to win the big game, now is the time to go big and take some long shots. The AWSC Congressional Proposals can help build and pay for an even bigger Peace Corps and Americorps. In doing so, the AWSC builds other service organizations at home and abroad and shows the world that America is leading by moving competition from warfare to service fare. More.

If the Executive Branch has any suggestions as to how we can help build a bolder AWSC now, please let us know. Congress Woolsey had offered to introduce the AWSC Congressional Proposals but now may be backtracking. We have spoken to many Congressional offices including these in a 07 DC visit and recently approached Congressman Sestak’s staff. We’ve been talking with Senator Boxer and Feinstein’s staffs for years.

FTBRA http://www.worldservicecorps.us/Tax%20bracket%20proposal.htm

AWSC Proposal http://worldservicecorps.us/world%20service%20key%20proposal%202yr%20volunteer.htm

Dwayne Hunn 415-383-7880
www.WorldServiceCorps.us <http://www.WorldServiceCorps.us>
www.PeoplesLobby.us <http://www.PeoplesLobby.us>
Comcast Cable Local Edition's <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMVeRVTvm4> 5 mins.
KMTV’s Presents the American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals
<<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5412649329836782026>> 28 mins.