An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 19 March 2009
Let the Indoctrination Begin
Now this is scary…
The House passed a bill yesterday which includes disturbing language indicating young people will be forced to undertake mandatory national service programs as fears about President Barack Obama’s promised “civilian national security force” intensify.
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, known as the GIVE Act, was passed yesterday by a 321-105 margin and now goes to the Senate.
Under section 6104 of the bill, entitled “Duties,” in subsection B6, the legislation states that a commission will be set up to investigate, “Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.”
Section 120 of the bill also discusses the “Youth Engagement Zone Program” and states that “service learning” will be “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.”
“The legislation, slated to cost $6 billion over five years, would create 175,000 “new service opportunities” under AmeriCorps, bringing the number of participants in the national volunteer program to 250,000. It would also create additional “corps” to expand the reach of volunteerism into new sectors, including a Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps and Veterans Service Corps, and it expands the National Civilian Community Corps to focus on additional areas like disaster relief and energy conservation,” reports Fox News.
The title itself is misleading: The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act. Let’s see, according to Webster, voluntary is defined as
1 : proceeding from the will or from one’s own choice or consent 2 : unconstrained by interference : self-determining 3 : done by design or intention : intentional <voluntary manslaughter> 4 : of, relating to, subject to, or regulated by the will <voluntary behavior> 5 : having power of free choice 6 : provided or supported by voluntary action <a voluntary organization> 7 : acting or done of one’s own free will without valuable consideration or legal obligation
Now then, according to the language in the bill, this “service” would be mandatory. And what does Webster have to say about that?
1 : containing or constituting a command : obligatory <the mandatory retirement age>
According to the Fox News story, opponents are calling it expensive indoctrination and forced advocacy. I tend to agree. What other reason would there be for mandatory volunteerism than to force liberal ideology down the throats of these kids? Clean Energy Corps? Healthy Futures Corps? Why is it when I read about this,
comes to mind?
Heh!
H/T James T.
