<nettime> all hail the Citizen Corps

[Bill Spornitz <spornitz@mts.net>]

The article appended below points at a reflection of the very 
tangible way that *life is different* after 9/11.

If this were Clinton announcing a national volunteer corps, and if 
the dotcom were still festering, it would be evidence of how things 
are getting better. As it is, it looks more like a geriatric Red 
Guard.

So, this is the cultural revolution, American-style? Youch.

b

<links>
The Red Guard Tabloids : http://www.ace.lu.se/library/tabloids.html

A different Red Guard : http://redguard.clanpages.com/charter.html

Another Red Guard : 
http://www.aamovement.net/history/red_guard/redguardparty.html

The Red Guard page from the BBC's special report on communist china:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/special_report/1999/09/99/china_50/red_guard.htm


<nyt article>
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/31/politics/31BUSH.html?todaysheadlines>

In Depth
White House
Bush, Focusing on Terrorism, Says Secure U.S. Is Top Priority 
(January 30, 2002)

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Jan. 30 - President Bush said today that he 
would create a national volunteer agency called Citizen Corps to 
engage Americans in protecting the United States from terrorist 
attacks and helping out in future catastrophes.

Citizen Corps would recruit and train retired doctors and health care 
workers for emergencies and enlist truckers, letter carriers, ship 
captains and others in reporting suspicious activity to the 
authorities. Citizen Corps would also double the number of 
Neighborhood Watch programs in the United States and increase 
training in local communities for disaster preparedness.

"At home, you fight evil with acts of goodness," Mr. Bush said here 
at the start of a two-day trip designed to spread Tuesday night's 
State of the Union message that domestic security was his first 
priority. "You overcome the evil in society by doing something to 
help somebody."

Mr. Bush then noted his father's presidency and its celebration of 
charitable work as a "thousand points of light" to define voluntarism 
as "the momentum of a million acts of kindness." But Mr. Bush would 
greatly expand his father's work, and incorporate voluntarism into a 
large government program run from the White House.

Reuters

In Winston-Salem, N.C., President Bush talked about security. Joining 
him was Tom Ridge, center, the director of homeland security.

     Thomas Friedman on Terrorism presents six of Mr. Friedman's Op-Ed 
     columns on the threat of terrorism facing the U.S. prior to the 
     attacks of Sept. 11. Read now for just $4.95.

Citizen Corps would be the domestic security arm of a new USA Freedom 
Corps, an umbrella organization that Mr. Bush created by executive 
order on Tuesday. The USA Freedom Corps is also to include expansions 
of three existing volunteer programs - the Peace Corps, Senior Corps 
and AmeriCorps.

AmeriCorps places volunteers in poor communities, often as teachers 
in inner city schools. It was developed early in the Clinton 
administration and at the time was derided by most Republicans in 
Congress.

Today, Bush administration officials said they would seek $560 
million from Congress in next year's budget to finance USA Corps and 
to expand the existing programs.

Mr. Bush himself sounded like a recruitment officer as he repeated 
his call from his State of the Union address for two years or 4,000 
hours of lifetime volunteer service from every American.

"If you listened to the speech last night, you know, people were 
saying, `Well, gosh, that's nice, he called me to action, where do I 
look?' " Mr. Bush told a loudly cheering crowd at the Lawrence Joel 
Veterans Memorial Coliseum. "Well, here's where: at 
usafreedomcorps.gov." Mr. Bush then added: "Or you can call this 
number - it sounds like I'm making a pitch, and I am. This is the 
right thing to do for America. 1-877-USACORPS."

Mr. Bush said John Bridgeland, the director of the White House 
Domestic Policy Council, would be the executive director of the USA 
Freedom Corps, which will be part of the executive office of the 
president.

"By taking him off the Domestic Policy Council and putting him in 
charge of USA Freedom, I am obviously making a strong commitment to 
the future of this organization," Mr. Bush said. "He'll be held 
accountable. When we say we're going to get more people involved, 
I'll be asking him on a regular basis, `How are we doing?' "

Mr. Bridgeland said in a news briefing here that the administration 
was seeking to increase the number of Peace Corps volunteers, from 
7,000 to about 15,000, the all-time high reached by the program in 
1966. Mr. Bridgeland also said that the Peace Corps would return to 
Afghanistan as soon as it was safe to help in reconstruction efforts.

He added that the administration was seeking 25,000 more AmeriCorps 
participants and 100,000 new members of the Senior Corps, a volunteer 
program for retirees. Mr. Bush is proposing to lower the age for 
Senior Corps participation to 55 from 60. He is also offering such 
incentives as earned scholarships that may be transferred to 
grandchildren or others.

Throughout his appearances today, Mr. Bush reprised his themes about 
fighting terrorism and recession. He said that "thousands and 
thousands of killers" had been trained in terrorist camps in 
Afghanistan and were still "around the world," and that discoveries 
by the United States military in the caves of Afghanistan showed that 
the terrorists had "designs on our homeland still."

Mr. Bush was referring to the diagrams of American nuclear power 
plants and public water facilities that he said had been found in Al 
Qaeda hideouts.

The president, who won North Carolina handily in the 2000 
presidential campaign, referred to himself today as "a good 
conservative Republican" who nonetheless had good things to say about 
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. Senator Jesse 
Helms, the state's retiring Republican, chuckled at that remark.

Mr. Bush got one of his loudest applause lines when he told the crowd 
that he was still in favor of tax cuts, then alluded to Democrats 
like Mr. Kennedy who want to delay them.

"For those who want to do away with tax relief," Mr. Bush said, "you 
don't know what you're talking about."

Later in the day, Mr. Bush traveled to Daytona Beach, Fla., where he 
spoke at a rally and sounded hoarse and tired. The president said the 
enemy had been watching too much American television and did not 
understand the resolve of the nation.

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