Obama, slavery and Jonah Goldberg

Wonkette summed it up perfectly. The Times never reached so low as when they brought Goldberg on board. I sure hope he's paying YOU!

We live in LA and have subscribed for over 30 years, and we're about to call it quits and just subscribe to the NY Times-- yeah, they've got wackaloon Kristol, but they more than balance him out with people who *aren't* crazy.

I think the real debating point here is: Why does the Times provide a forum for this intellectual lightweight and all-around doofus? There are many smarter right-wingers than Goldberg, many right-wingers more honest than Goldberg, so why, why, why?

Given Goldberg's consistent idiocy, why does the LAT (or anyone else outside of the National Review) continue to give this gasbag a national platform?

Once again, Jonah Goldberg gets it wrong. Once again, he belittles and reduces a good idea (no; a great idea) to a single-minded oversimplification. National service likened to slavery might seem a good fit in his mind because hey, there's a certain historical funhouse mirror feel to his oddly warped symmetry: black man suggests slavery as a national option. But Goldberg does this country a grave disservice in performing this intellectual sleight-of-hand.

Many of us have been asking for years for our country to push for national service. Compulsion never bothered Mr. Goldberg and his ilk when it came to national military service, so why would building things cause him more concern than killing people as a nationally required service to one's country?

It all depends on how you look at it. In my mind, it's a quid pro quo: the state educates children until the age of 18, at which point that citizen gives back 18 months of service in the area of his or her choice. That could mean military or Americorps type work as well as any number of other national holes we need to fill: delivery of food, supplies, and assistance to the elderly or disabled; teaching and classroom assisting; infrastructure upkeep; park/beach/lake/trail maintenance; and a hundred other needs that have gone unfilled for too long.

With life expectancy lengthened, job mobility and career switching a fact of American life, and the hurried need to finish college and begin a career by age 22 no longer operating, why not? (And, if a student is not college-bound, I see no reason why that youth couldn't start on the volunteer path at age 16.) Imagine the tens of thousands of disaffected and untethered young people - especially children of recent immigrants who have not yet found their place in this system - participating in their country's betterment, seeing their labors as meaningful and worthwhile and necessary to their full citizenship, and forging friendships with other American youth from different cultures, regions, and backgrounds. I can see no better way to connect young people to this democracy.

this jonah guy has a point: community service is used as a punishment for crimes. i don't want to do it; as an attorney, i notice that people generally don't want to do jury duty either. institute compulsory service, and suddenly people will get hard to count . . . .

Johan should have his "Jewish Card" revoked! As a Jew, I just want to crawl under a rock when I read some of his bizarre, racists rants.

I mean, who should know more about Slavery than a Slave to the Right Wing.

The Times just announced layoffs. Sadly, they left one who will undoubtedly make haste in driving readership even LOWER.

Good bye and good night LA TIMES.

How dare anyone tell us Americans what to do. (Don't they know it's our job to tell others what to do?) We Americans carry around this loopy idea that if anyone requires anything of us, we are somehow being enslaved. Was the World War II draft enslavement? No, because war is always a good excuse. But developing responsible citizens who become engaged with their nation's well-being (without being forced to shoot people who happen to come from a different country) is slavery. In California, high school students are required to do 60 hours of community service to graduate. Does that make them slaves? No, it makes them better citizens. Does anyone else suggest that many of the same people who are howling about "slavery" here are also anxious to keep an automatic weapon at home for "safety"?

Neocon Jonathan Goldberg has long history
race of baiting. It's an obsession for him.

You have to have certain mental bent to equate
Barack Obama call for volunteerism with slavery.
Goldberg is an embarassment to Jews,
including the owner of the L.A. Times. The Times needs to sever there relationship with Goldberg immediately

In an attempt to belittle Barack Obama and slavery Goldberg belittled himself. It is time for him to begone.

Using Goldberg's reasoning anyone who receieves college assitance for attending the mititary academies, ROTC or serving in the military is a slave. Goldberg didn't say that because his focus once again is on skin color.

To the Los Angeles Time Editorial Board and Mr. Jonah Goldberg:
Editorials and opinion pieces in many national newspapers are poorly researched and exhibit suspect logic, but Jonah Goldberg’s July 8th piece on national service (Forced Servitude in America?) reaches for the pantheon of mediocrity. Mr. Goldberg’s attempt to equate national service initiatives such as Americorps to slavery, smacks of a middle school student’s attempt to grab his audience’s attention through shock. What follows is an opinion piece that is poorly researched and misrepresents the facts
Mr. Goldberg’s first major misrepresentation comes in the proclamation that Sen. Obama wants to make national service compulsory. Mr. Goldberg writes, “If you don't make the kids report for duty, he's [Obama] essentially telling schools and college kids, you'll lose money you can't afford to lose. In short, he'll make service compulsory by merely compelling schools to make it compulsory.” The exact language Sen. Obama used in the July 2nd speech to which Mr. Goldberg is referring appears below:
“…when I'm President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service.
We'll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we'll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities. At the community level, we'll develop public-private partnerships so students can serve more outside the classroom.
For college students, I have proposed an annual American Opportunity Tax Credit of $4,000. To receive this credit, we'll require 100 hours of public service. You invest in America, and America invests in you - that's how we're going to make sure that college is affordable for every single American, while preparing our nation to compete in the 21st century.”
The reader should note that the term “compulsory” was never used by Sen. Obama in the above excerpt, nor in his entire speech. Two words Sen. Obama does use in the above excerpt are “opportunity” and “credit.” Typically “opportunities” are exercised or ignored through an individual’s freewill and “credit” can be accepted as a form of compensation. In fact, Mr. Goldberg’s accusation that national service is analogous to slavery or indentured servitude is downright laughable when positioned next to Sen. Obama’s plan for a $4,000 tax credit in return for 100 hours of service. That’s $40/hour of compensation for badly needed services included tutoring and mentoring at risk youth. It may be more pleasing to Mr. Goldberg to see college students trying to buy books with the $6.00/hour they’d make serving fries at McDonald’s, but most Americans would agree that the talents of American college students could be put to better use serving kids who need role models.
Mr. Goldberg’s second major error comes in the form of his conclusion that expanding Americorps and the Peace Corps will decrease overall volunteerism. As Mr. Goldberg puts it:
“Indeed, there's ample evidence that countries with intrusive and expensive welfare states stifle their citizens' spirit of charity and volunteerism precisely because people conclude that every problem should be solved by government. Merely paying your taxes substitutes for charity, and cleaning up roadside litter for two years absolves you from doing anything more.”
Mr. Goldberg’s thought process in the above statement is so confounded that dissecting it is a chore. First, incentivizing Americans to perform volunteer work for the benefit of each other does not constitute an “intrusive and expensive welfare state.” The entire purpose of national service incentive programs is to facilitate young people to take action instead of letting the government take care of things for them. Americorps volunteers choose to contribute to society by devoting two years of their lives to society’s biggest problems.
Secondly, as an Americorps alum I personally take offense to Mr. Goldberg’s dismissal of the service Americorps members perform as “cleaning up roadside litter for two years.” The ignorance displayed in this statement is so profound it reveals Mr. Goldberg’s complete and utter lack of familiarity with the activities of Americorps members. Americorps members work with a variety of non-profits in the Americorps network including, Habitat for Humanity, Teach For America, New York Teaching Fellows, and City Year. Activities include teaching in low-income school districts, tutoring and mentoring disadvantaged youth, building affordable housing, and operating after-school programs.
Finally, Mr. Goldberg’s overall conclusion that participating in volunteer programs partially funded by government money will decrease future volunteering runs completely against the facts. According to an independent survey of alumni of one of the largest Americorps programs, Americorps participants are more likely to volunteer after their term of service then their peers who did not serve in Americorps. The Americorps alums were also more likely to participate in society in ways other than volunteering including participation in community groups and voting. Further, a survey performed by Independent Sector and Youth Service America found that adults who began volunteering as youth are twice as likely to volunteer as their peers who did not volunteer when they were young.
Americorps is an incentive program designed to facilitate national service; this represents neither slavery, nor indentured servitude. We who have served are proud of the work we’ve done and honor our country by continuing to serve and participate in our great nation. If Mr. Goldberg had spoken to even one Americorps member or alumni, perhaps he would have understood how much it means to us to hear the leaders of our nation tell us, “You invest in America, and America invests in you.”
Sincerely,
Michael S. Flynn
Americorps Member 2004-2006