What scares Americans?

Dwayne Hunn

Not bullies, bad guys, competition, frontiers, outer space, depressions, wars, budget deficits. Not powerful kings, fascists, communists, terrorists. Not destroying, rebuilding, building.

So, will America’s politicians fear the potential of robustly reinforcing the works of the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and other similar armies?

When the proposed citizen-initiated World Service Corps Congressional Bills build enough grassroots national support to empower these organizations to robustly attack world ills and evils, will politicians say, as some have indicated, that doing so is too dangerous? Too expensive? Too complicated? Too sensible?

When powerful Great Britain dictated to Americans, Americans beat them back with little regard for the task’s difficulty. When depression gripped our nation, FDR’s courageous vision and policies pulled us up so that everyone benefited. When wars destroyed Europe and Japan, America didn’t worry about finding the resources, people, or management skills; America just rebuilt a chunk of the world.

So now as those working on People's Lobby’s Congressional World Service Corps proposals www.worldservicecorps.us begin talking to elected official at all levels, it is difficult to understand concerns that say:

· Won’t it be expensive?

· How do we pay for it?

· Won’t it be hard to manage?

Expensive? What if over six years it cost $4 billion to send one million peaceful, productive Americans on do-good missions without missiles? Wouldn’t that be more cost effective than having Halliburton lose $9 billion in one year in Iraq? What has that $9 billion and the other lost billions done for America’s security that a million Americans building schools, clinics, homes, and capacity wouldn’t do better?

How do we pay for it? The WSC legislation calls for funding via general tax revenues AND a web listing that reflects over the past six years the large, successful corporations that have paid little or no tax. They and their highly compensated CEO’s, as well as America’s extremely wealthy will be web listed as a means of encouraging them to contribute, without a further reduction in their taxes, to covering the costs of WSC service that will make the world a better and safer place for their and the world’s children. If you are angered that the low and middle classes carry the overwhelming costs of this war, then let the WSC legislation begin addressing that inequity.

When enough wealthy, middle class, and poor Americans understand the financial resources still available in America, billions could be raised outside of the federal tax stream to fund the millions of needed WSC projects. And in the long run, this far-sighted, educational, cost effective policy will avoid us spending hundreds of billions of dollars and spilt blood in the future due to poor, uninformed policy decision-making.

Dangerous? Those who choose WSC service overseas may face more dangers than existed 6 years ago, but not combating the rising Ugly American image will only allow it to grow and make tomorrow increasingly dangerous. Peaceful, productive Americans on a mission overseas are immediately more protected by the hosts with whom they work than are those hoisting missiles. And when WSC members are too endangered, we turn to the world’s finest military to protect and remove them from harm. That is our military’s purest use, which the world understands and supports.

Hard to manage? Hey, Americans built an army from scratch, organized a soaring economy from a depression, defeated fascism, rebuilt Europe and Japan, put teams into space, and flawlessly started a Peace Corps, which was intended to quickly reach a million but has not even come close. We pride ourselves on our management and team building that overcomes economic, social, and technological obstacles, so don’t lie to America’s Peter Druckers that sending a million can-do Americans into the world is too hard to manage.

In the 21^st century’s evolving global village, Americans need to lead those shortsighted politicians who don’t understand the depths of America’s ability, character, and capacity to build the peaceful American army that stalks and defeats hunger, poverty, illiteracy, AIDS, and extremism. If Americans aren’t afraid of cost effectively pitching in to build a better world, why should politicians be afraid?

Visit www.worldservicecorps.us/how_to_help_.htm and help turn the WSC proposals into law. America’s pockets of need and the world can’t wait. Give Americans a big mission, so America and the world can begin discarding its missiles.