Obama wrote an article, published in Time Magazine, on his purposed legislation to expand the role of public service organizations, such as Ameri-Corps, and increase the sector by a quarter of a million jobs.
First off, it is refreshing to have a President that can write an article worthy of getting published in Time. The only thing Bush seemed to write was his own signature. Aside from that, it is an effective argument to get our nation working again fixing the broken American infrastructure.
When my Grandfather talks of the Great Depression, he talks fondly of his times in the C.C.C. or Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the New Deal programs started by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Grandpa left his family farm in South Dakota to work in the state forest, doing useful jobs for more than useful pay. It helped put food on the table for his family and gave him food, shelter and a sense of purpose while he did it.
A hand up, not a hand out! This strategy worked well in the Depression and it can act again to rebuild our dilapidated country. From my experience, most people I’ve met that have fallen on hard times are ashamed to take public assistance. Sure there are those who abuse the system, like the recent Octo-Mom, who will take everything they can get and juice every last dime out of the American taxpayer, they don’t however, make up the majority of the people I have met. From what I’ve found, our current system seems to cater to those who know how to manipulate the system, often refusing help to those who genuinely need it.
Why write checks for no work? It makes no sense when we can pay that same person to get off the couch and start rebuilding their communities. To take pride in their neighborhoods with community centers, clean parks and safe schools.
Besides, America needs a makeover! Public works and infrastructure, such as a nationwide high-speed rail, local city light-rail are long overdue. We are the only major industrialized nation with piss-poor transportation and we are falling behind on new techniques for successful cities. Our bridges and roads need maintenance or they will crumble away into dust. How can our cities function and our economies flourish if we don’t invest the money to keep them working? They won’t that’s how. They will stop working and America’s best and brightest will begin to flee, causing a brain-drain, leaving America behind.
Republicans like to claim that spending money is inherently evil, except for the military. This makes no sense! Imagine if you didn’t spend the money to keep your own house in good order while you spent a fortune in high tech laser beams and bullet proof glass. Imagine the plumbing, electric lines, water heaters and garage doors left to decay. Your house may become unlivable but you’re sure as hell safe from a robbery!
Taking care of America is good business. When Eisenhower signed the bill to build the national Interstate highway system, he did so only after convincing the Republicans that it could be used to transport military equipment and missiles. In the end however, it created a system of arteries that fed valuable cash, the blood of an economy, into every corner of the nation. The great American prosperity that followed WWII would carry on because of it.
The other thing Republicans like to tout is the Military. They love Uncle Sam’s fighting force to be massive, with over 700 bases outside of the US. They love the Republican leaning military with its self-contained cities complete with Baskin Robbins and Subway restaurants. They love all the money we spend in pensions and medical spending to keep our soldiers healthy (money well spent but that’s not the point). The military is the biggest bureaucracy on the planet. Ask any vet about that. Sure it doesn’t function beautifully. It does get the job done however and that is what counts in the end.
The rest of the world is ahead of us on infrastructure. China and India are on the rise and it is our system that is failing. Investing on the home front is as valuable as any money spent on the war front. We need a strong system of healthy, content people to defend against terrorism.
In the end, isn’t living well by example the greatest message of all?