Passed by the House of Representatives with a 321-105 margin, HR 1388: the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, dubbed the “GIVE” act, would require the US government to develop a plan to implement a “mandatory service requirement for all able young people”.
Already males ages 18 through 25 living in the U.S. register with Selective Service to keep records in the event Congress and the President authorize a draft. What is the purpose of the service requirement under the GIVE act?
The purpose of the GIVE act is to “To reauthorize and reform the national service laws”, specifically the National and Community Service Act of 1990. HR 1388 reads:
‘(9) recognize and increase the impact of social entrepreneurs and other nonprofit community organizations in addressing national and local challenges;
‘(10) increase public and private investment in nonprofit community organizations that are effectively addressing national and local challenges and to encourage such organizations to replicate and expand successful initiatives;
‘(11) leverage Federal investments to increase State, local, business, and philanthropic resources to address national and local challenges;
‘(12) expand and strengthen service-learning programs through year-round opportunities, including during the summer months, to improve the education of children and youth and to maximize the benefits of national and community service, in order to renew the ethic of civic responsibility and the spirit of community to children and youth throughout the United States;
‘(13) assist in coordinating and strengthening Federal and other service opportunities, including opportunities for participation in emergency and disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery;
‘(14) increase service opportunities for our Nation’s retiring professionals, including such opportunities for those retiring from the science, technical, engineering, and mathematics professions to improve the education of our Nation’s youth and keep America competitive in the global knowledge economy, and to further utilize the experience, knowledge, and skills of older Americans;
‘(15) encourage the continued service of the alumni of the national service programs, including service in times of national need;
‘(16) support institutions of higher education that engage students in community service activities, provide service-learning courses, and encourage or assist graduates to pursue careers in public service in the nonprofit or government sector; and
‘(17) encourage members of the Baby Boom generation to partake in service opportunities.’.
HR 1388 specifically targets Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) which Congress expects will reach 250,000 participants by 2014. From school-based service learning programs to focusing on severely economically depressed communities, the GIVE act sounds good until you get to part about the mandatory service requirement for youth. How can volunteerism be mandatory? The Future explains:
Section 6104 of The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act requires that a commission be established 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.”
Of course I imagine cadres of youth working on environmental projects such as tree planting; however, I can’t get on board with the involuntary servitude. It’s even scarier when you consider Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel coauthored The Plan: Big Ideas for America that calls for compulsory service for Americans ages 18 to 25:
Here’s how it would work. Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They’ll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we’re hit by a natural disaster. These young people will be available to address their communities’ most pressing needs.
In fact, Obama and Biden ran on the idea of required community service for our youth:
Obama and Biden will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year, and will establish a new tax credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
I like the idea of a tax credit for public service, but I do not like the idea of mandatory service for our youth. Mandatory requirements do not ensure our youth will develop a sense of lifelong community service, and many churches and high schools already have such requirements for youth.
HR 1388 is currently on the Senate’s calendar. A cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the measure has been presented in Senate. Although I am in favor of community service, I am not in favor of mandatory service, as the GIVE act could take away our individual freedom. I am also concerned at what the goverment will deem service, like biochemical attack training mentioned in Emanuel’s book. What happens if a child does not complete their mandatory service requirement if the GIVE act passes and one is developed?
it passed the senate vote …lets get the word out to the streets because the media wont say anything about it. i heard some guy from the CFR had put this whole thing into the homeland security act awhile back. they are going all out until we fight back and then they get there civil war,
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America is in need of a moral bailout
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090323_america_is_in_need_of_a_moral_bailout/
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I was kidding every 18-25 year old I ran into today and showed them a brief article on this latest scheme.
Woah, you wouldn’t believe the reactions! I can’t post them here. lol Suffice it to say, it wasn’t positive. This will get interesting. I just told them “Have fun at camp”.
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Even younger than that folks. Just found out yesterday that kids in the local high school ( 9th thru12th) are required to complete 30 hrs of community service before the end of their senior year or they will not be permitted to gradulate. Haven’t gotton all the spec yet but when I do you will be the first to know!
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Interesting. But what is wrong with serving your country? Ain’t all the nascar truck driving bible beaters all about “serving”….LOL
Those who hate america should leave. LOL
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RD Reply:
April 24th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Those who don’t understand our country should try to (Yes, I am talking to you). What you miss is that forced volunteerism is an oxymoron.
Citizens of the United States do not have to do anything for their country. That is what the great experiment has been about.
And government. By the Constitution and Bill of Rights has one duty and one duty only; To protect its citizen’s.
Time for you to read both!
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USman: We do believe in serving our country – but not at the point of a gun. And this is not about serving our country. It is about forcing our children to do things we might not agree with them doing. It is about the government taking over the roll of mommy and daddy. Not good.
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USman,
You are a real ignoramous huh? It seems someone like you who has never represented anything no less our great country would tell someone else to leave because of an opinion. I hope I get to run into you with your “green shirt” on and ask me to be a coward like yourself. Please GOD let me run into this clown.
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Benito Mussolini comes to mind. Lenon did it, Stalin did it, Hitler did it and now Obama is doing it. When will people wake up? Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat
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This sounds like a back door way to bring back the draft. America’s soldiers are exhausted and no one wants to volunteer to take over for them. The military-industrial-media complex has devised this scheme.
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The only place the word “mandatory” is used regarding individuals is in Section 120: INNOVATIVE DEMONSTRATION SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH. (B) service-learning is a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.
There is no Section 6104.
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If you scroll down to sections D and E ( this is cut and pasted from GovTrack), it looks like a participant can voluntarily participate in religious activities like listed in 7, as long as they aren’t using federal funds.
The bill also repeals funding for the much-maligned by liberals Points of Light program. This administration clearly wants to be the sole recourse of Americans, the all-purpose go-to solution.
And what about this text misidentified in the article as Section 6104? It needs verification before I can lend it any credibility.
In any case, it’s no longer just LAZY to depend on the government. It’s increasingly dangerous to one’s personal freedoms.
Frankly, I’m planning to trust in Jesus alone. He’s the one to handle this thing. Of course I’ll prepare my family for survival, but taking up arms won’t gibe with Mattjhew 5 and 6.
SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
‘(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
‘(1) Attempting to influence legislation.
‘(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
‘(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.
‘(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.
‘(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office.
‘(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.
‘(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.
‘(8) Providing a direct benefit to–
‘(A) a business organized for profit;
‘(B) a labor organization;
‘(C) a partisan political organization;
‘(D) a nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 except that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and
‘(E) an organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7), unless Corporation assistance is not used to support those religious activities.
‘(9) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive.
‘(10) Such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.
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Volunteering is one thing…forced service bites the big one. I like that you can get college money for “volunteering” what I don’t like is that you can’t protest etc….it even effects religious instruction. Put a mustache on Cheney and he looks like the Nazi Dr. in “Marathon Man”, put a Walrus Mustache on Ronald Reagan and he looks like Stalin, Rohm Emmanuel doesn’t need anything…..he just looks evil….!!
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Tom Beretta Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Joseph Goebbels…that’s our Rohm
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You people look but cannot see. You Will Serve in whatever capacity your told. You are a 14th amendment citizen. Unless you change your predestined condition, you are government property. Now run along and put up another federal flag. It will be ok.
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LARRY Reply:
March 25th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
GO FUCK YOUR SELF FED.
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UnReconstructed Reply:
March 25th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
My, My. What a dirty mouth you have there. Why don’t you say your little socialist pledge and then wash out your filthy mouth.
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stephen.wanderlust@gmail Reply:
March 31st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Does the blood of 14th amenment citizens taste clean to you? I suppose you do everything they tell you?
[...] really. Conservative websites actually have people believing that Congress is quietly trying to pass a bill that would outlaw [...]
[...] truth to power on this issue (links theirs, bold mine): Some … conservative Web sites say it requires the government to draw up plans for a “mandatory service requirement for all able [...]
THis is not only about mandatory service but in this Bill is money going to groups like ACORN. Vitter of Louisiana had an Amendment to prohibit them from getting money from taxpayers but it was tabled so that means it is dead. So now groups like ACORN can get money from us to do their dirty little work.
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I think that All Americans should stand up for what this country was founded on. We need to make sure that America stays America and fix the problems that need to be fixed and keep going with the people speaking and make sure that the people are heard. We dont want to see our kids in middle school haveing to go into things they might not want to go into. We want to know that we have a Choice and that choice is to be Free. We all need to stand and be heard so lets see it happen lets hear our voices. we cant be silent. we cant act like nothing is happening any more. WE ARE AMERICANS. IN GOD WE TRUST, AND THE HOME OF THE FREE.
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I’m trying to get to the nut of this; it was passed. So they’re saying that in FACT every kid (and I understand that this goes down to elementary kids also) will do “community service”? Am I correct in this?
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tzsnotes Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 7:28 am
that’s the way it reads to me too -
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i COMPLETELY agree that we have to FIGHT to keep this country what is was founded as… FREE. My husband is currently serving in Iraq and he is just as adamently against this servitude, which is exactly what it is. Our own government is violating so many of OUR rights and freedoms. Our children should NOT be forced into doing something they don’t want to do. Our military may be tired but you know what? They are still fighting for us. Why? Because that is what they signed up for. They didn’t sign that contract to watch their kids have to be forced into something they should be able to CHOOSE to do. Forced volunteering is ignorance. Full blown oxymoron. Volunteering is OPTIONAL, NOT mandatory. Forced community service is for criminals. Come on people… this is our kids we’re talking about. We need to fight against this as hard as we can. Aren’t we the ones who decide? I’m 22 years old. I have a 19 month old daughter and i’m due with a baby boy in June. I want them to have the right to choose whether they volunteer or not. Our military personal CHOSE to be in the military. I chose to be a military wife. We HAVE to remind the government officials they work for us, not the other way around. We chose them. Now lets fix our mistakes.
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They are slowly taking away our freedoms and violating the amendments specifically created to help US. So many people are so proud to be Americans and love the freedoms we have. THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE THEM AWAY. You want to keep your freedom to bitch and complain? Fight against the stupid bull they come up with. We have a military for a reason. Look back at history. Hitler. Stalin. Come on people. ALL BAD GUYS! Do you really want your children growing up with another one of them? Do you want to live in fear of all the consequences of this forced service? DEMOCRACY! THE PEOPLE CHOOSE! Well we’re the people. Our military members choose to serve. They weren’t forced to serve. They willingly signed the contract. As a navy wife, i serve silently. I want my children to continue to have the right to choose whether they serve this country or not. They are severely violating our rights. FIGHT BACK. This is our future as well as our childrens. We had the right to choose. They should too.
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Someone said. in their comment, that “we are proud to be americans”, I have to disagree. There are many many people in this country that are not proud. the question is why arent they? Answer is that people cant be proud of a nation unti lthey have come to realize that they are a PART of this nation and that they play a role in protecting this nation and all that she stands for. Now look at those who do not feel that they have played a role or do not feel that they are welcomed into the fabric of this land. These are the people who will tell you that this contry does not make them proud.
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I don’t think mandatory service will work but then in this country of (often) fat, lazy americans who walk around with their hands out crying about the government not giving them enough of this and enough of that it does not suprise me that people are so upset. Americans usually worry about themselfs. The government must be crazy to think they can force us to volunteer our time to help anyone but ourselfs. My kids all had to do community service in order to graduate high school. It opened their eyes and hearts to the needs of others. Maybe if we all actually volunteered the government wouldn’t try to force us to be good to those in need?
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This is scary, Sounds like the play by play book for German in the 30’s used by A. Hitler.
He took over banks, took over manufacuring. Then closd down the boy scouts and formed his own “youth” programs.
This is for indoctrinizasion and that only. To brain wash kids that thier parents are bad, that God is bad, that only gov. is the answer.
We need to stand and stand together and stand together strong.
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Be advised that part of HR 1388 gives displaced members of Hamas (a known terrorist organization) $20 million dollars.
The most dangerous voter is an uninformed voter.
Be sure to vote next year.
Remember, all of the House of Rep and 1/3 of the Senate is up for reelection then, which is why there is such a rush to pass all of these bills without so much as a peep from the media.
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I totally agree with 99% of you here. Our kids should not be forced into or indoctrinated into anything. I think most Americans are afraid now. Thus we have Tea Parties. We need to go to those and make them know we disagree. Totally. I never want to see this nation at war with itself. We have been there and done that. Our families are too precious to lose because of liberalism or socialism. Vote them OUT again and again and again and again. Freedom will Ring.
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We have got to do something to take all of this power away from these madmen bent on destroying America and everything it has stood for for over 200 years. We are in the process of becoming another nation of Russians with no rights or say in our government because of this madman and his cronies!
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Amen! Any ideas of what we can do to stop this madness?
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Tom Beretta Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 10:50 am
For starters, write your elected officials. The more people that do the better. It lets them know where we stand. Next..write the media outlets and ask why they are notcovering these types of stories. Inform others that may not dig as deeply into these issues as some of us do.
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shades of Hitler Youth.
I have family who were forced to “volunteer” doing things that were unethical and harmful to others in the community.
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Has anyone besides me noticed the similarity between Rohm Emmanuel and Joseph Goebbels?
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tzsnotes Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Yep – when I first heard about this I said it reminded me of Hitler’s goons and the ‘\Hhitler youth’ movement. No doubt during the volunteer times, there will be lots of ‘indoctrination’ too…
Just like NBC last night trying to portray Iran as being ‘just like us…’
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Telling and linking to all my friends, nObama is as sick as I ever suspected, truley off the chart etreemist socialist moron attempting to steal my Liberty and destroy my constitution of my country I believe in.
He makes me ill. VOTE HIM OUT! Hell i’d vote ofr Nader 1st at this point, can’t believe I just typed that.
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Dimitri Reply:
July 4th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
extreemist**
edit
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Dimitri Reply:
July 4th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Hell I’d* vote for* Nader first* at this point, can’t believe I just typed that.
VOTE OBAMA OUT!
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This is all part of the plan to disarm America and to fight the force that is sworn to protect the constitution.
Please WAKE UP AMERICA. This mandatory training (brainwashing) is vital to the success of this tyrannical agenda.
Its a 2 fold process. The National Guard will be used to augment to war effort in Afganistan. They will be deployed to a point to there isn’t enough to fight this new force.
Remember accorinding to Obama this force will be “just as powerful, just as strong, and just as well funded”.
I see this for what it is. I’m in the National Guard. I’m an asset of the Governor unless orded to a federal status. I’m seeing this and I plead with you all, heed this warning.
Rebellion or civil war is eminent if the government does not veer off this oppresive course.
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