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.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Again, I welcome our new Socialist overlords.
UPDATE: Allahpundit notes this Obama-ism but misses the 13th Amendment angle.
UPDATE II: As noted in the comments, the text has changed since I cut-n-pasted it from “change.gov”. Now reading “setting a goal” vs. the quoted “require”. Nice to know that The One is flexible and quick to back off something when challenged. Thanks to Hot Air for the verification that the text was changed.
In The People’s Republik of California, community service has been a high school graduation requirement for many years and AFAIK no one has seriously pursued the legal aspects of this requirement. I’ve never known this requirement to positively impact a youth’s penchant towards volunteer service. When presented with a palatable opportunity, those inclined towards philanthropy give of their time and talents - and get the ‘volunteer’ requirement checked off - and come back for more. Those not so inclined do the minimum required and stop. I don’t see Obama’s program having any more success than the one’s in CA.
Comment by Paddy O'Furnijur — November 7, 2008 @ 7:31 pm
You misquoted the source…
From the source you linked to
“… by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year …”
Your quote
“…by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school…”
Looks like they’re not going to require it, but the $4k of college cash would be hard to pass up for alot of students.
Comment by Teneo — November 8, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
Not a misquote, but Team Obama editing. See Update II above.
Comment by Sinner — November 12, 2008 @ 11:35 am