It's Even Cooler on September 11...

by Christina Malliet

In this post, we’re following up on a July 20 ICP blog regarding the trend of “pop culture volunteerism.” The examples made from the participation of the country’s leaders in service projects are especially effective in uniting the country on days such as September 11. On Saturday, celebrities and leaders around the US and from every area of popular culture participated in The 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. Want to know where your favorite figure was serving this year? Keep reading!

• President Barack Obama helped with a multi-organizational project that involved the design and creation of quilts to be sent to children of deployed service men and women. Michelle Obama worked at the Vinson Hall Retirement Community in McLean, VA, repainting and repairing parts of the building.

Photo credit here.

Photo credit here.

• Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden volunteered for New York Cares, creating care packages and writing cards for military members overseas.

Photo credit here.

• The MLB observed a day of remembrance on Saturday by wearing special caps, which were also sold to fans to profit their organization, Welcome Back Veterans. Some MLB players also served in person on Friday; Jason Michaels, Jeff Keppinger and Bud Norris, of the Houston Astros, visited local fire stations to thank firefighters for their service.
  

Photo credit here.

• Chef Joan Nathan participated in the Bookmarks 2010 Festival of Books, an admission-free event promoting literacy, especially in youth.
  

• Cuban-American Entertainer Jon Secada and his family served at the Mission of St. Francis community center in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The family helped the staff distribute food packages at this rehabilitation center and in the surrounding community.

• Pop artist Jordin Sparks served with VP Biden for New York Cares, making cards and care packages.

Photo credit here.

Where did you serve on September 11? Tell us your stories in comments below!

(For more information on day-to-day celebrity volunteering, please click here.)

September 11: National Day of Service and Remembrance

Today the United States, and its friends around the world stop to reflect on the tragedy of eight years ago, when 2,819 people lost their lives at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

It is no less a day of reflection at ICP. ICP formally opened its door eight years ago, only a few months before 9/11. As we have grown over the past eight years, we have done so in a country and a world that, for better or worse, has been profoundly shaped by the events of that single autumn day. In years to come, future generations will look back and identify September 11, 2001, as a generational turning point – this day of tragedy that occurred just as the first forerunners of the Millennial generation graduated from high school and began college, and as the first cohort of the generation to follow was born.

And what has 9/11 come to mean for the young adults and teenagers of the Millennial generation, and for the children of the next? We have witnessed over the past eight years a growing call for civic engagement, for social responsibility. We have seen countless reports and studies over the past eight years that all say the same thing – young people value community. They value service. They value connection and the sharing of their stories with others. They value their role as not passive, powerless recipients of charity and “for your own good” proclamations and decrees, but as strong, integral actors in identifying and addressing community needs, challenges, and solutions. Young people are crucial resources in tackling economic downturn, global climate change, unemployment, poverty, homelessness, educational disparity, crime and many other critical community needs.

There is always much talk by older generations concerning how best to prepare the younger generations to tackle the severe, planet-wide, even life-threatening problems that will come to a head in the not-so-distant future. It is time for the older generations to recognize that young people are ready now. They have grown up and matured in a world shaped by 9/11. They have seen what marginalization, poverty, isolation, hostility and hatred have done. They are ready now to counter those effects by reaching out to others, to their community, to engage in service to address the root causes of those issues. They are ready now to heal the damage.

And so at ICP, we are encouraged that the tendency of the past eight years has been toward embracing 9/11 as not just a day for remembrance of the victims of hatred and tragedy, but a day of service to the greater good – a day to reach out to our community, to remind ourselves of the ties that bind us, to treat each other with compassion and understanding, and to join together to face down the issues and challenges that can so easily divide us.

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More news about support for service in connection to the National Day of Service and Remembrance:

• Visit the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance website

• Read about the designation of September 11 as the National Day of Service and Remembrance in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.

• Read President Obama’s proclamation of the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance

• Learn about the service projects that thousands of Americans will be engaged in today, and find an opportunity to serve here.

• Mayors of some of the largest cities in the US have announced the creation of a Cities in Service” initiative.

• Tonight in New York City, My Good Deed and ServiceNation will host a National Day of Service and Remembrance Commemoration, which is slated to have appearances and speeches by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, New York Governor David Paterson, New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and performances by entertainers including platinum-selling singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw, Anjulie, the Harlem Boys and Girls Choir, Grammy Award winners The Roots, and Five for Fighting’s John Ondrasik.

Find out more about ICP’s work in engaging young people worldwide in service at www.icicp.org

National Service Continues to be an Important Election Issue

Using the July 4th holiday as a pulpit, presumptive Democratic Nominee for President Barack Obama's July 2nd speech at CU-Colorado Springs has continued to consolidate and strengthen his argument for increased patriotic service by every American.



Obama backs the current bipartisan GI Bill introduced by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and called for an Educational Tax Credit to motivate increased civic engagement. Obama's vocal support of service legislation is coupled with public calls for a reorientation of American society--"We were ready to step into the strong current of history, and to answer a new call for our country. But the call never came. Instead of a call to service, we were asked to go shopping."

This is the most important and progressive part of Obama's National Service platform--for the first time in recent memory a high level American political leader has made a concise appeal to our patriotic instincts and coupled it with feasible legislation to motivate increased civic engagement. Support and acknowledgment of the power of youth civic engagement and service learning is the first step towards educating a generation of young men and women on the merits of positive and constructive patriotism.

Article Addressing McCain and National Service

National Service and the Presumptive Republican and Democratic Nominees for President

After June 3rd, the US Presidential race is down to two major-party candidates, John McCain of the Republican Party and Barack Obama of the Democratic Party. McCain and Obama have both shown a willingness to discuss the expansion of AmeriCorps and new ideas for national and community service in the US. Here at ICP, we have paid close attention to their platforms, as the future of National Service both in the US and abroad is contingent upon the policies of the two candidates.

Both candidates have called for young men and women to serve their country in some capacity—in the armed forces, AmeriCorps, or the Peace Corps. Along with this call, the candidates have proposed implementing specific new program initiatives and policy changes in order to achieve the goal of increased civic engagement, though Obama’s platform is more comprehensive than McCain’s.

John McCain voted against the AmeriCorps bill in 1993, but later became an advocate for the expansion of AmeriCorps. In 2003, he cosponsored the “Call to Service” bill with Senator Evan Bayh, which would have vastly increased the size of AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and provided monetary compensation for the work.

However, more recently his support has waned as he has admittedly focused more on security issues. In 2005, he called for US citizens, even those who oppose the war, to contribute 2 years of service to the United States as an act of patriotism. In an Op-Ed in the Dallas Morning News, McCain wrote:

“There are few greater ways of infusing your life with meaning than by spending two or more years in the service of your nation. The military obviously forms an exceptional way to serve America and our ideals, but it is not the only route. The Peace Corps and AmeriCorps also provide excellent and fulfilling ways to serve.”

At present, the Republican candidate’s major policy initiative related to civic service is his support of “Troops-to-Teachers,” which creates incentives for returning military service people to transition into careers in teaching. In a March 15th, 2008 speech in Columbus, Ohio, McCain spoke about his vision for National Service and the US educational system in 2013:

“Public education in the United States is much improved thanks to the competition provided by charter and private schools; the increase of quality teachers through incentives like merit pay and terrific programs that attract to the classroom enthusiastic and innovative teachers from many disciplines, like Teach for America and Troops to Teachers.”

Although vocally supportive of AmeriCorps and Teach for America (an AmeriCorps program), McCain has failed to present a dynamic and thorough policy for expanding and funding these programs. When asked by ServeNext (an organization dedicated to advocating for increasing the visibility of National Service programs as well as funding them) to sign their “Presidential Pledge to Expand National Service¹,” McCain declined, saying, “I stand on my record, not on pledges.”

On the other side of the aisle, Barack Obama not only signed the ServeNext Pledge, but has also developed a more comprehensive proposal to address the need for national youth service and civic engagement. On his website, Obama has a page dedicated to service under his “Issues” section. Here, Obama details his plan for improving support and funding for National Youth Service Programs.

One of his major initiatives would include expanding AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots annually to 250,000, as well as doubling the size of the Peace Corps. Obama also provides for changing American culture to be more receptive to national service by stimulating service learning in middle and high schools and by offering a $4,000 tax credit to college students willing to contribute 100 hours of public service a year.

Obama has made several speeches, including his December 5, 2007 speech, “A Call to Serve” at Cornell College in which he laid out the national service platform for his campaign and his May 25, 2008 commencement address at Wesleyan University, which outlines the vision he has for youth service in the context of the future of the United States. In the speech at Wesleyan, he said,

“As President, I intend to grow the Foreign Service, double the Peace Corps over the next few years, and engage the young people of other nations in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity… …You know, Ted Kennedy often tells a story about the fifth anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps. He was there, and he asked one of the young Americans why he had chosen to volunteer. And the man replied, “Because it was the first time someone asked me to do something for my country.” I don’t know how many of you have been asked that question, but after today, you have no excuses.”

This speech went beyond a simple endorsement of the AmeriCorps program—it was a call to young men and women to serve their country in any way possible. In his speech at Wesleyan, Obama made clear that his support for national service derives in part from his own experience as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago – a connection that links national service to a progressive view of national service as a vehicle for social change and justice

In a world where civic engagement has become increasingly popular and where young men and women have increasingly attempted to donate their time and skills to help create change, support for programs like the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps from the highest levels of government has never been more important.

(For more current information with regards to Presidential Candidate Obama's position, also see this speech at CU-Colorado Springs.)

1. ServeNext does not have the Presidential Pledge uploaded to their website; however, they do have the Congressional Pledge, which is the exact same pledge, only that it instead asks the congressperson to join the Congressional Caucus for National Service.