Political Grab Bag

[AFPheonix]

I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to have to do a community service project to graduate high school, or serve a certain number of hours with a charity group or non-profit.

[the_std]

I had to do community service hours for a certain class in high school. If you didn't do them, you didn't pass the class and it was a required class so, if you didn't pass the class, you didn't graduate. it was 10 hours per semester in grade nine, 15 in grade ten, 20 in the eleventh and 30 in the twelfth.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

[Sylvia727]

My community service-- bearing in mind that my only ride was my feet and I lived in a fairly well-off neighborhood-- was the free gift wrapping at the mall. The first hour was fun. After that, I was just there to endure. I had an A+ in the class, so I only put in half my community service hours and still got an A-. Thorough waste of time. Of course, I realize that this was poor management in one particular instance, and hardly applies to everyone.

[Flyndaran]

Predicating a diploma upon whether or not one does community service is offensive. If my school had tried to force me to do something not school oriented, then I would have simply refused. Colleges would have no problems with my S.A.T.s and a G.E.D.
The idea that I could get flunked despite excellent grades defies what shcool is supposed to be.
It's legislating morality, and that is truly un-american, or at least it used to be.

[AdminAssistant]

I agree somewhat with Flyndaran in that I hate that schools are moving away from academics. Now colleges want to see a lot of activities and work experience. I didn't do a lot of activities. I didn't work (beyond typing a few hours a week). As a result, I scored a 30 on the ACT and graduated with a 3.98. Which resulted in not having to pay for college.

I'm not saying I didn't do community oriented stuff (I did that with my church). But I did it of my own free will. I don't think it should be forced.

Now, a mandatory draft would be highly, HIGHLY unlikely - especially when the Congress-people realize that will affect their own families and the families of their biggest donors. If it did pass, I would raise all kinds of holy hell. Being 25, it would be unlikely for them to take me. If they did, they would drag me kicking and screaming. But I would go, and I would do my bit, and then I would come back to raise some more hell.

We have an excellent military. Yes, it has a lot of problems. But it provides really great career opportunities to those who choose to go through it. (One of my cousins is a Major. He has a really nice house...off-base. Just sayin'.) But to force a lot of people who don't want to be there on the system...that's something nobody wants.

And..ladies, we can always argue that they can't draft us until they pass the fucking Equal Rights Amendment that should've been passed 30 years ago. You wanna send me to war? Put it in the Constitution that I have the same rights as a man and I'll do it.

[daleduke17]

If you didn't feel like contributing to the country you'd be free to leave it.

I do contribute to the country. I pay taxes.

Anything else should be of my own choosing.

[the_std]

It's legislating morality, and that is truly un-american, or at least it used to be.

A) I don't live in America, so that statement doesn't apply to me.

B) You could choose anything you wanted to do for community service as long as you could prove that you did the hours. For example, some people stuffed envelopes for political campaigns, some were care-partners for the elderly, I set up and served a buffet at a Sudanese war awareness dinner. It was not an effort to legislate morality, it was to build a sense of community. And it worked.

C) If you really had a conflict with the service and it truly could not be worked around, they let you write an essay or do a project on the benefits of such service in the community, so it was not set in stone.

D) I went to a Catholic high school. This service was part of our Christian Ethics class, which was a religion class that focused pretty strongly on Christianity but also taught you how to live your life as a Christian. It was called Christian Service Hours and it was part of a Christian teaching about loving thy neighbour or something like that, I'm not sure. It was also clearly defined when you went to register that this would be a requirement of the class, so if you didn't have the time or just didn't want to do it, there was another high school down the street.

[Sylvia727]

And..ladies, we can always argue that they can't draft us until they pass the fucking Equal Rights Amendment that should've been passed 30 years ago. You wanna send me to war? Put it in the Constitution that I have the same rights as a man and I'll do it.

Hear, hear. With equal rights come equal responsibilities....

[Slytovhand]

Of course she's all for it. She's immune to it if it goes through. Now if they declared it gender neutral and elected officials to be just as applicable, see how fast she'll try to shut it down.

And if they instituted a policy that said any congress persons who vote to go to a war are automatically in the first draft?? I mean, if you're prepared to sacrifice other people's lives, you ought to be willing to sacrifice your own.... yes?

Or am I being naive again??

[AFPheonix]

Predicating a diploma upon whether or not one does community service is offensive. If my school had tried to force me to do something not school oriented, then I would have simply refused. Colleges would have no problems with my S.A.T.s and a G.E.D.
The idea that I could get flunked despite excellent grades defies what shcool is supposed to be.
It's legislating morality, and that is truly un-american, or at least it used to be.

And yet there are many classes in school that aren't necessarily academics minded that are required for graduation, like a certain number of electives like arts or automotives.
There have been countless posts on this board where people bemoan the fact that kids aren't taught "real world" stuff. Well, I consider volunteering a real world issue. If was not required for my school, although it was a part of 4-H for me, and I continue to volunteer for organizations even now. Currently I work twice per month at Essential Health Clinic and occasionally help with clinics and whatnot for 4-H kids.
It's not like it's dental work or something, calm down.