Back on topic, though: Here is the statement from change.gov: "Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year." If you'll notice, this does not differentiate between public or private middle schools, high schools, and colleges. Without further information, it is not unreasonable to say that Obama plans to make this compulsory for ALL students, regardless of where they go to school. On top of that, EVEN IF he was referring only to public schools, he would still be referring to public schools that the *federal* government has no legitimate Constitutional authority or jurisdiction over. No matter which way you slice it, this proposal is unconstitutional. Furthermore, it's extremely dangerous. Sure, 50 to 100 hours doesn't sound like much, and we could all use a little experience helping our fellow man, right? Of course, after we become comfortable with this and accept the basic principle that the government should be able to force people into community service, who's to say the program won't be expanded to require 50-100 hours of service a year from everyone aged 14-60? After that, why not bump up the service hours to 200? After that, maybe we can REALLY promote national unity by requiring 500 or 1000 hours of work a year. Hell, to really go all out for national unity, let's just reinstate the draft! After all, we are stronger working together than we are working apart. A bundle of rods is much stronger than a collection of separate and individual rods...but oh, wait...isn't that part of the metaphorical underpinnings of the collectivist ideology called "fascism?" (That's not to neglect socialism or Communism either, which both rely on the same basic collectivist ideals and the use of totalitarian state power to enforce them on people). The point is this: Governments expand their power over people gradually. By boiling the frog slowly, governments can get people comfortable with small, gradual increases of state authority over their lives. This is also called "creeping normalcy." Did you know that for over one hundred years, our federal government was easily run on tariffs alone...and that it still made so much money that political cartoons depicted it as fat and greedy? When the income tax was originally proposed, the people were promised that only the very richest would ever need to be taxed, and tax levels would never exceed 1%. Obviously, that has changed...we now pay a significant portion of our income to the federal government (in addition to state governments), and that's in addition to other taxes like inheritance, capital gains, etc. Because of property taxes, we no longer own land anymore, because we are eternal serfs paying rent to the government. One by one, we have lost habeas corpus, the 4th Amendment, and the Posse Comitatus Act. People are held without trials in Guantanamo Bay. We see more and more instances of police brutality every week from cops in riot gear. The CIA tortures people for information (and actually, British citizen Binyam Mohamed has alleged that the CIA used a razor blade to repeatedly cut his penis - that's one hell of an "alternative" interrogation technique, in the words of Dick Cheney, isn't it?). The Patriot Act first led to small abuses of the 4th Amendment, but then we heard about the NSA wiretapping...and doesn't it seem like every month, more information comes out indicating that the full scope of the wiretapping is much broader and more invasive than we previously thought? NONE OF THIS HAPPENED OVERNIGHT! Instead, we have slowly become desensitized to these things as they have gradually happened with greater frequency and gradually become more abusive.
No matter how "good of a cause" it seems to be for or how small of a sacrifice it seems at first, I oppose involuntary servitude on principle, because the government is NOT our boss - it is meant to be our servant for the purpose of protecting our rights, and nothing more. The point I make is simply this: If we as US citizens do not outright reject the principle that government has the authority to tell us what to do, we will only invite them to become more and more bold and controlling as time goes on...until eventually, we are slaves to the government in all but name. While it may seem like a minor or trifling issue, allowing the government to force us to work (no matter how little or for what cause) will set a horrible precedent that I guarantee you we will regret for generations.
