Jul 30, 2013 | Politics
FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps, JFK the Peace Corps and Bill Clinton, AmeriCorps, Bush set about creating USA Freedom Corps (concerned with eveything except freedom to pursue your own happiness).Ariana Huffington in National Service: The Ultimate Shovel-Ready Infrastructure Project, quotes John Bridgeland, the former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President George W. Bush:
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson expressed our right to the pursuit of happiness. But he was not simply referring to the right to pursue personal, momentary pleasure fueled by a culture of material goods. The happiness to which he was referring was the right to build a prosperous life within a strong and vibrant community. The happiness of which he wrote was the public happiness. [!!!]
She goes on...
The Founders, writes Bridgeland, "understood that such sacrifices and work were necessary to bind the country together, as well as unleash a market of talent and compassion to address social needs and keep society functioning." So it was the act of giving back, of service, of civic engagement that literally helped build and unite this huge new experiment of a country of disparate parts and races and languages. And, correspondingly, it's the diminution of that spirit that's behind the feeling so many have that the country is coming apart, hopelessly polarized and no longer indivisible.
[...] "Our generation wants to push and dream for something big," Matthew Segal, co-founder of Our Time, a national advocacy group for young people, told Amanda Terkel, "and few policies make more sense than allowing idealistic young Americans to serve their country via nursing, teaching, disaster relief, park restoration, and infrastructure repair." It's about both a very necessary paycheck and a sense of purpose in life.
Jul 29, 2013 | Politics
Comments Steve Simpson:
Whatever the question, a growing segment of the culture thinks the answer is always more regulation of political speech. Do you tell people what candidate to vote for? You should be regulated. Do you avoid telling people what candidate to vote for? You are a liar; you really want to tell people which way to vote, but aren’t admitting it. You should be regulated. Do you spend a lot of money on political speech? That level of spending is grotesque. You should be regulated. Do you spend only a little? The laws are working. Let’s pass more of them. Are you a nonprofit that pays no taxes? You’re getting a gift and should be regulated. Are you a for-profit entity that does pay taxes? You’re distorting democracy and should be regulated! It’s time we realized that the tax and campaign finance laws that apply to political speakers are designed to prevent people from speaking effectively and that many opinion leaders want to use them to do just that. If we want to prevent another scandal like this from happening — and more importantly, if we want to protect our ever-dwindling right to freedom of speech — we need to recognize that we can have freedom of speech or we can have a regulated marketplace of ideas, but we cannot have both.
[The American Spectator : Speech Laws and the IRS]
Jul 29, 2013 | Politics
Fight at WTC Memorial over iconic flag-raising photo being overly patriotic - NYPOST.com:
This iconic picture of firefighters raising the stars and stripes in the rubble of Ground Zero was nearly excluded from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — because it was “rah-rah” American, a new book says.Michael Shulan, the museum’s creative director, was among staffers who considered the Tom Franklin photograph too kitschy and “rah-rah America,” according to “Battle for Ground Zero” (St. Martin’s Press) by Elizabeth Greenspan, out next month.“I really believe that the way America will look best, the way we can really do best, is to not be Americans so vigilantly and so vehemently,” Shulan said.
