How About?
Actually reading the transcript of the speech and looking at what Obama said in context?
Loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July," he said in a speech in Colorado Springs, Colo. "Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger."
The Illinois Democrat pledged that he would make enhanced public service a central part of his presidency if elected this fall.
"I won't just ask for your vote as a candidate," he said. "I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I'm president of the United States. This won't be a call issued in one speech or one program. I want this to be a central cause of my presidency. We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve."
Obama said he would boost the size of the active military, but that the nation's future depends on more than just additional soldiers.
"It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school working in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia," he said.
Obama reflected on how the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy both made public service hallmarks of their administration and how the nation was the better for such efforts.
He promised to increase AmeriCorps slots from 75,000 to 250,000 and pledged to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011.
"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."
Obama called for greater integration with schools, so that young Americans are better prepared to be active citizens. He said he would make federal assistance conditional on school districts establishing service programs and set the goal of 50 hours of service a year for middle and high school students.
"Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young Americans to take citizenship seriously," he said.
For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and repeated his pledge to create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students that would be tied to that level of service.
Obama said he realizes there will be skeptics who will question how he might possibility be able to get more young people motivated to do public service, but argued the nation's very spirit is tied to greater service.
"Renewing that spirit starts with service," he said. "Make no mistake: our destiny as Americans is tied up with one another. If we are less respected in the world, then you will be less safe. If we keep paying dictators for foreign oil, gas prices are going to keep rising, and so are the oceans. If we can't give all of our children a world-class education, our economy is going to fall behind. "
Cheers
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Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Fri 29 Aug 2008, 2:24,
Reply)