For those who recall the 1961 Inaugural Ceremony, the quote "Ask not what your country can to for you. Ask what you can do for your country," still stirs the soul.
Such words can speak to both liberals and conservatives. Where today's tea party and neo-conservative proponents decry costly, overly expansive federal government and its patronage of those who may have become too dependent upon what their country does for them, these words should make John F. Kennedy sound like one of them. And where Kennedy's Peace Corps derived its geneses from these same words, a modern day version could help solve our crumpling infrastructure problem while providing some employment and experience for today's underemployed youth.
In the decade following Japan's near economic collapse, recently educated youth were denied entry-level job opportunities, chances to complete their educational experience by working in fields related to their formal training. Ten years later when the economy did recover, those entry-level jobs went to newly graduated youth. The prior decade became "lost" permanently.
Now that no one expects a rapid recovery, wouldn't giving our educated youth entry-level experience in a 21st Century Peace Corp be more appropriate, allowing them to do something with their education for their country?
Perhaps Franklin Roosevelt's genius was his creation of a WPA and CCC that provided minimal unskilled work for those who otherwise would have stood in line at soup kitchens. Their accomplishments can still be seen today dotting our landscape. And it did not cost the country much. At that time, none of these projects were shovel-ready. It took careful planning and coordination to house, feed and direct this service corps.
So what are we waiting for? A rapid recovery is not forthcoming! Those with educational loans not likely to be repaid soon should be ready, willing and able to work their loans off, especially in fields related to that training. Those who have lost their mid-career jobs ought to be able to plan and direct these endeavors.
Whether it's replacing old crumbling infrastructure or working on highly innovative new structures like high-speed rail, renewable energy or affordable health care, we can either do it now using our own youth for labor, or we can allow both our society and our old infrastructure to crumble while our elected officials fiddle with balancing a budget.
Dale Whiting, Chandler
Leon Ceniceros posted at 5:31 am on Thu, Jul 14, 2011.
Yes, back then we were all blindly in love and awe of our World War II Naval Hero handsome young President. Now we find out he was being shot up with more drugs and steriods than our modern day MLB "gorillas". The Secret Service covered up Kennedy's trysts in the Oval Office with assorted "Mob" girlfriends while Jackie was upstairs in the Private Quarters taking care of John-John and Caroline. I won't even speculate on his and Bobby's involvement with the death of Marilyn Monroe. I am sure the "truth" will eventually come out on that score.
Let's move on from the "Democrat Womanizing Presidential Poof-piece". Let's talk about the call for ....DEMOCRAT STIMULUS PACKAGE 2 or is it 3. Let's throw another TRILLION DOLLARS (that we didn't have in the first place for STIMULUS 1, STIMULUS 2 and maybe STIMULUS 3).....at the economy. Kind of like when you test a strand of spaghetti to see if it is "al dente"...you throw it on the kitchen wall and if it "sticks" then it has been cooked enough.
AS ONE OF THE OTHER LETTER WRITERS JUST RECENTLY WROTE..."WHEN ARE THE DEMOCRATS GOING TO QUIT DIGGING THE ..."DEFICIT HOLE"....WHEN WE REACH .......GREECE?
JSBeals posted at 9:14 am on Thu, Jul 14, 2011.
Dale - Yes, the WPA was the right project at the right time for many Americans. But can Americans get on board with a such a vast project today? Not sure. The fear of the government has paralized us from moving forward. A line has been drawn in our political sand so deep that I'm not sure it will be smoothed over enough to have a rational dialogue on anything that might be benefitial to our country. Good ideas are shot down by both sides of the aisle for fear of losing votes to the side that brought forward the good idea, which stifles any chance of a successful America. In other words, we are no longer playing for team America; we are playing for our own party's self-interest and promotion with foolish emotion.
Cerulean posted at 1:25 pm on Fri, Jul 15, 2011.
Yesterday I spent some time listening to debates on the house floor for the passage of HB 2354 Energy and Water spending bill. The two main arguments for spending were for 1) a high-speed rail system to run across the U.S. from east to west, and 2) funding projects to repair and/or control the Mississippi river due to damage caused by recent flooding.
As I weighed the two projects in my mind I remembered a documentary film I had watched several years ago about the difficulty and complete waste of time, energy and money it is to try to control the Mississippi. However, there they were, Republicans from Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, Rep. from both sides of the river asking for a billion + dollars to fund disaster relief. I diverge from the intent of your letter, Dale, but my point is that Republicans have no problem asking for handouts, too.
The high-speed rail system will be an energy efficient means of transportation that will move the U.S. with bonus points (i.e. It will reduce some noise and air pollution caused from airplane travel.) I think your idea would have made a thoughtful amendment to the spirit of the bill, which was to create jobs and improve and modernize infrastructure.
Your letter describes an idea that reaches out to young people, offering them an opportunity to work for their education.
Instead, what Arizona got was Rep. R - Paul Gosar who passed an amendment that cut funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to enforce a ban on firearms and explosives on state lands where the Corps is operating projects, like at dams and bridges that bypass dams.
“So what are we waiting for?”