Thursday, March 26, 2009

Call Your US Senators!

The National Service Act (also known as the GIVE Act) is on the Senate calendar today. It's known as HR 1388 and S277.

It's not getting a lot of time in the national media spotlight. But this act would require volunteer service of our young people, while at the same time placing severe limits on the type of service that can be done and participation in religious/political activities during the service period.

Volunteering is good. I encourage my children to volunteer as they are able; Big Brother has worked with Habitat for Humanity in Philadelphia, PA and spent a week in Mississippi doing Habitat work, and he looks forward to participating in this in the future. Middle Sister has begun volunteering at church events. I am proud of my children's work in the service of others, and do not want their volunteer work restricted to what is "politically correct." Rather, I want them to learn to, as a line in the movie Robots says, "See a need, fill a need."

Call your Senator and let them know that a bill that requires volunteer activity flies in the face of what volunteering is all about, and a bill that further restricts volunteer activity to exclude religious and political service restricts our freedom of religion. In short, it's unconstitutional.

No comments: