January 30, 2002

5:32 AM

The USA Freedom Corpsannounced last night during the State of the Union address now has a live website for you to peruse. Is this a long-overdue program, or another feel-good waste of tax dollars? Can you name a better way to serve your country and countrymen?
posted by johnnyace (21 comments total)

Well, at least they're saving some of our tax money by ripping off their logo from the USA Network/USA Films guys...
posted by shecky57 at 5:48 AM on January 30, 2002

Program? What program? It looks like an exciting new name and website for existing programs. We've already got the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. They're adding the Citizen Corps which includes such incredibly innovative new programs as Neighborhood Watch. Color me excited. Or jaded. One of the two.
posted by jburka at 5:54 AM on January 30, 2002

Watch your ass, Osama.
posted by luser at 6:10 AM on January 30, 2002

There's a Community Emergency Response Team component, which -- given the counter-terrorism aspects -- might at times find itself competing for memetic space with the Computer Emergency Response Team (which has dropped the full name and goes solely by CERT).

It's kind of hard to get really excited about something like this, which is by nature passive and reactive. There are, of course, precedents such as the WWII British Home Guard (which served as a paramilitary in the event of German invasion) and still has analogues today.
posted by dhartung at 6:12 AM on January 30, 2002

Remember when Clinton got no Republican support for AmeriCorps, and how AmeriCorps got so little press? Sigh.
posted by droob at 6:14 AM on January 30, 2002

You could start a successful small business thereby creating jobs and wealth. That would be a much better use of everyone's time.
posted by Mick at 6:18 AM on January 30, 2002

and it is certainly interesting that a component of this new freedomcorps is..... americorps.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:25 AM on January 30, 2002

I think it's evil of the Bush administration to:

1/ Attempt to rename the AmeriCorp program
... and...
2/ Give no credit to Mr. Clinton for creating the program.

This partisan bullshit has no place in this day and age.
posted by jpburns at 6:25 AM on January 30, 2002

I have a friend who used to work/volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, part of AmeriCorps - they didn't pay him enough to afford a place to live, so he lived in the houses that they were building, sometimes without heat or hot water.
posted by panopticon at 6:45 AM on January 30, 2002

Doesn't look like the AmeriCorp program was renamed, but subsumed. Bush would no more give credit to the previous administration for creating the NightWatch..er...USA Freedom Corp as he would for creating the Peace Corps, which is also being subsumed.
posted by dwivian at 7:09 AM on January 30, 2002

I'm old enough to remember Vista (Volunteers in Service to America).
posted by Carol Anne at 7:27 AM on January 30, 2002

Remember when Clinton got no Republican support for AmeriCorps, and how AmeriCorps got so little press? Sigh.
The good old days. I vote for "feel-good waste of tax dollars", realizing I never really had a chance to vote.
posted by thirteen at 7:33 AM on January 30, 2002

I remember ACTION, too. Apparently it's no longer extant, having been rolled into other program(s) circa 1989. Here's a link about them courtesy of Google.

American TV viewers may recall the cast of Johnny Hart's comic strip B.C. in a public-service announcement singing a jingle about ACTION, too:

A, we're the ACTION corps,
C, we contribute more,
T is for the teamwork of our crew;
I, our ideals are high,
O, oughtn't you apply?
N means it's now that we need you.
posted by alumshubby at 7:40 AM on January 30, 2002

Here's why I'm scared of this shit:

Operation TIPS (Terrorist Information and Prevention System): Operation TIPS will enable millions of America transportation workers, postal workers, and public utility employees to identify and report suspicious activities linked to terrorism and crime.

I wonder when they'll start issuing us our "How to identify a terrorist" propaganda videos. Hell, we could even ressurect the Committee for Unamerican Activities! Nothing better than a good dose of healthy suburban paranoia in my book.
posted by tweebiscuit at 8:58 AM on January 30, 2002

Operation TIPS (Terrorist Information and Prevention System): Operation TIPS will enable millions of America transportation workers, postal workers, and public utility employees to identify and report suspicious activities linked to terrorism and crime.

They're already able to report "suspicious activity"; the program just teaches them to do it in the correct manner and to distinguish real threats from "that guy just looks suspicious." If anything, it should cut down on people reporting false threats because they don't know what a real threat looks like.
posted by lizs at 9:06 AM on January 30, 2002

Be a good citizen and get your copy of the federally funded Preparedness
Guidebook.
posted by Sqwerty at 9:17 AM on January 30, 2002

They could have picked a better name, too.
posted by y2karl at 9:20 AM on January 30, 2002

Hmmm, it's an interesting one. Got old Clintonites pissed, civil libertarians pissed, regular old libertarians pissed, and Republicans probably couldn't give a damn as long as the tax cuts speed up. Must be why it was one of the more interesting proposals last night.

I'm seriously considering signing up, but I guess I don't count 'cause I was seriously considering the Peace Corps anyway, and it doesn't look like much has changed other than they want more folks. Not everyone can "create jobs and wealth" like Mick wants us to, or would even consider that the best use of a citizen's time.

So are the Democrats on this list saying that Americorps is ruined because George stole it from Bill? Would you be more or less pissed if he had just killed it?
posted by hackly_fracture at 9:50 AM on January 30, 2002

I'm old enough to remember Vista

I'm old enough to have been in VISTA. One of the odd things about it is the pledge you have to swear to when you are sworn in as a volunteer. It's the same one the senators take, swearing to uphold the laws of the country and the constitution, protect the US against all enemies foreign and domestic, etc. Not bad, but since I was going to be working specifically with immigrants, many of them illegal, I was concerned, and I declined to sign. The nice VISTA ladies basically said "oh just cross out what you don't agree with and then sign it" so I did, signing a big crossed out piece of paper.

The job pays 90% of poverty level wages which worked out to about $600/month for me, which didn't go far in Seattle. The amount of paperwork I had to fill out was staggering and oversight was nil -- I spent a lot of my time being a glorified secretary which is why I finally quit.

That said, my only real issue with the service was the fact that since you are supposed to blend in with your community, you are specifically forbidden from exhibiting any outward political behavior [generally on the job or off] this includes things like registering people to vote, expressing political opinions about issues and even expressing yourself if you are a member of a political group. I got up in front of an orientation session and asked if that mean that I should stay in the closet for the year if I were gay. The orientation leader mumbled something about "playing it by ear" and "community standards" but it was clear the answer was "yes"

Some of the new strains, like City Year, are a lot more paramilitary, and include such activities as public exercise in the middle of town, heavily logoed mandatory uniforms and restrictions on how much you can fraternize with other CY folks, even during your time off. It's sort of the Anti-Freedom corps in my mind.

On the other hand, these jobs do give you a real feel for service work, student loan deferment [or payment in some cases] and experience doing something that's not just food service or temp work right our of high school college.
posted by jessamyn at 9:59 AM on January 30, 2002

Can you name a better way to serve your country and countrymen?

Vote.

Most don't.

(Including state, municipal, local elections.)

posted by lupus_yonderboy at 12:25 PM on January 30, 2002

I spent 2 years as an AmeriCorps member, and I found it to be a pretty good experiance. We had a very good team (from kids just out of high school, to retired IBM folks), and we were all willing to work hard to serve the kids that we were working with. If the sponsoring agency doesn't have a good sense of how to help you maximize your impact, then you can end up with a lame experiance like the one that jessamyn had (btw, VISTA still exists as part of AmeriCorps, and there is CCC like thing called NCCC, which also has some of those aspects that jessamyn pointed out about city year).

I'm not quite sure what the point of creating a new layer is, unless it is serve as a way to bring Peace Corps and the CNS programs closer together. The name set me on edge right away. All I could think was, "dude, what's that you are listening to?" "Dude, it's freedom rock, man"
posted by eckeric at 12:30 PM on January 30, 2002