6923 Vera Cruz Ct.

                                                           Citrus Heights, CA 95621

                                                           916-728-2391

                                                           tjking@rcip.com

 

                                                           December 30, 2006

Senator Barbara Boxer

501 I St., Suite 7-600

Sacramento, CA 95814

 

Dear Senator Boxer:

 

In order to direct your attention to a project it is in your interest to throw your considerable moral weight behind—because it is a cause so unquestionably in the interest of this country—I want to speak of a man named Dwayne Hunn.  I wonder if you know of his People’s Lobby organization’s work getting Congress to introduce and pass the American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals?

 

In the year 2000 Dwayne revisited haunts he had served as a young man in the Peace Corps and worked on Habitat for Humanity projects in Sri Lanka, Fiji and Georgia, where Jimmy Carter was swinging his hammer with a lot of other sweaty Americans erasing poverty housing. 

Dwayne, the Executive Director of People’s Lobby and of the American World Service Corps (www.worldservicecorps.us), has regaled groups such as Freedom From War and the Peace Pyramid in the Sacramento vicinity with many uplifting stories.  The tales he tells run to a gladdening close: whole villages of folks who come to view Americans not as an army of occupation and exploitation, but rather as ministering angels.

 

Unfortunately the arms of U.S. world service are feebly staffed at this time.  The Peace Corps, for instance, while still in operation, has a serving base of only around 7000, compared to 15,000+ a few years after Kennedy and his vision were taken from us.  History leaves us JFK’s immortal summons, Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country...  From the ashes of this all but forgotten idealism rises the phoenix of Dwayne Hunn’s dream and mission: American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals to build a volunteer service corps of one million can-do Americans (comprised not just of our youth, but tapping all age groups).  These proposals would engage already existing core organizations such as Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity, AmeriCorps, Headstart, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, etc., asking not simply what we can do for our country, but what we can do for the world.

 

I’ve been inviting my fellow citizens to dream along with Dwayne Hunn...; to think of quelling terrorism through our friendly acts instead of creating terrorists by our violence; to imagine legions of the peaceful and productive going forth to assist with the next disaster such as Katrina, a tsunami, or an African genocide.  I say to them, Imagine standing tall again as Americans!

 

What’s in it for me? the inevitable rejoinder resonates on my inner ear.  Sad to say, we live in times when the Jeffersonian dream sometimes seems to have dwindled to a consumer’s paradise of materialism and greed.  Perhaps only imagination and education can save us: the imagination that comes from educating ourselves in the classroom of world needs. Our payback then comes from the blessings we feel from having helped those less fortunate than ourselves.

 

It’s difficult to perceive why anyone would oppose such a win-win proposition, and endorsements are growing.  Here in California Dr. Bill Durston, who in his first step into politics garnered such a substantial number of votes in the recent election and anticipates another bid for a seat in Congress in ’08, indicated his approval of the WSC when he addressed my grassroots group the Peace Pyramid.  Charlie Brown, who also likely will be your fellow legislator in Congress in ’08, enthusiastically supports the initiatives.

 

My own enthusiasm, as you will perceive, is scarcely lukewarm. But I know well enough, Senator Boxer, that if those such as you in influential positions fail to position your crowbar to loft the regeneration of America, endorsing this peerless cause, then my enthusiasm is a bag of wind, the WSC is nowhere, and the loss to our country is immeasurable.

 

As a long-time spokesperson for peace, will you lead those of us who want a more peaceful and better future by being the leader to introduce People’s Lobby American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals early in the 110th Congress?

 

Yours in the spirit of hope in the new year,

 

Dr. Thomas J. King

 

(I ask as a favor that this message be faxed to the Washington, D.C. office.)