Because People Matter May / June 2007 www.bpmnews.org

Helping All Humanity

The American World Service Corps

By Tom King

“If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning...” runs the paean to freedom Peter, Paul and Mary sang back in the ‘60’s. Well, it seems that Jimmy Carter found his hammer.

Dwayne Hunn attests to the fact.

Revisiting haunts he had served as a young man in the Peace Corps, in the year 2000 Dwayne worked on Habitat for Humanity projects in Sri Lanka, Fiji and Georgia, where Jimmy was swinging his hammer with a lot of other sweaty Americans erasing poverty housing.

Dwayne, the Executive Director of People’s Lobby and of the American World Service Corps, has regaled groups such as Freedom From War and the Peace Pyramid in the Sacramento vicinity with many uplifting stories. The tales he tells end with a gladdening close: whole villages of folks who come to view Americans not as an army of occupation and exploitation, instead as ministering angels.

Unfortunately the arms of U.S. world service are feebly staffed at this time. The Peace Corps, for instance, while still in operation, has a serving base of only around 7000, compared to 15,000-plus only a few years after Kennedy and his vision were taken from us.

History leaves us JFK’s immortal summons, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” From the ashes of this all but forgotten idealism rises the phoenix of Dwayne Hunn’s dream and mission—American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals to build a volunteer service corps of one million can-do Americans. These proposals would engage already existing core organizations such as Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity, AmeriCorps, Headstart, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, etc., asking not simply what we can do for our country, but what we can do for the world.

You’re invited to dream along with Dwayne Hunn... Imagine military service becoming only one among many ways our youngsters, baby boomers and some retirees might serve their country. Think of quelling terrorism through our friendly acts instead of creating terrorists with our violence. Imagine legions of the peaceful and productive going forth to assist with the next disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, a tsunami, or an African genocide. Imagine standing tall again as Americans!

Our payback then comes from the satisfaction we feel from having helped those less fortunate than ourselves.

One then poses the inevitable question, “What’s in it for me?”

Sadly, we live in times when the Jeffersonian dream sometimes seems to have dwindled to a consumer’s paradise of materialism and greed. Perhaps only imagination and education can save us: the imagination that comes from educating ourselves in the classroom of world needs. Our payback then comes from the satisfaction we feel from having helped those less fortunate than ourselves.

But you need not sign up for far-flung assignments around the globe to help. Visit www.worldservicecorps.us, follow the link to read the text of the citizen-initiated World Service Corps proposed bills, and then sign the on-line petition to encourage congressional co-sponsors to introduce and pass them. Even with that signature you’ll feel the tonic of world service in your blood.

Tom King is the leader of the Peace Pyramid, a Sacramento suburban grassroots group promoting a cabinet-level Department of Peace.