May 23, 2004: Headlines: Speaking Out: National Service: Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin: The plan sounds a lot like Peace Corps. But let's make it mandatory, not voluntary. Or give such financial incentive that it's difficult to say no. Make it massive. Tens of thousands of young people going back and forth across continents to learn and exchange ideas.

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: May 2004 Peace Corps Headline: May 23, 2004: Headlines: Speaking Out: National Service: Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin: The plan sounds a lot like Peace Corps. But let's make it mandatory, not voluntary. Or give such financial incentive that it's difficult to say no. Make it massive. Tens of thousands of young people going back and forth across continents to learn and exchange ideas.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-115-42.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.115.42) on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 12:51 am: Edit Post

The plan sounds a lot like Peace Corps. But let's make it mandatory, not voluntary. Or give such financial incentive that it's difficult to say no. Make it massive. Tens of thousands of young people going back and forth across continents to learn and exchange ideas.

The plan sounds a lot like Peace Corps. But let's make it mandatory, not voluntary. Or give such financial incentive that it's difficult to say no. Make it massive. Tens of thousands of young people going back and forth across continents to learn and exchange ideas.

The plan sounds a lot like Peace Corps. But let's make it mandatory, not voluntary. Or give such financial incentive that it's difficult to say no. Make it massive. Tens of thousands of young people going back and forth across continents to learn and exchange ideas.

Guest Viewpoint: Massive student exchange could improve the world
BY PATRICK FARRELL

It's too late to protest against the war. It's been done and who is prescient enough to know which strategy will avert the larger disaster: pulling out the troops, or sending in more?

I want to propose a plan for the security of our country which has nothing to do with troops. We should have seized the opportunity of Sept. 11 to propose a real step toward peace. We should have asked, how could this have happened? How could it be that there are people that hate us so much that they are willing to blow themselves up just to hurt us?

Instead, like a bully who got a tooth knocked out by a lucky punch and beat up the first little kid he could grab, guilty or not, we looked for the easiest targets, guilty or not, and bombed. All the good will of the international community was wasted.

We've failed to seize the opportunity of Sept. 11, but maybe it's not too late. Here is my proposal:

* First, we implement a massive high school student exchange program. We send our kids overseas for a year. While there, they learn new languages, learn about different cultures, learn history from different perspectives, and make friends.

The community they go to gets to know them and understand, maybe for the first time, that not all American girls look like Barbie, nor all boys like G.I. Joe. When our children return, they bring back knowledge and understanding of different ways of life, an understanding certainly lacking in many Americans today.

The converse is that we bring thousands of students from overseas to go to school for a year in our high schools. From Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South and Central America they come and they attend our high school football games and dances. They go to church with us (or not). They watch the World Series. They go to New York City and stand in silence where the World Trade Center used to tower above the still awesome skyline. We get to know them; they get to know us. They take the experience home with them.

And then ask yourself, when the terrorists look for new recruits, who is a more likely candidate: the student who sat down to dinner with a family in Binghamton, or the poor boy whose family was shot up by U.S. Marines?

* The second part of the plan would be a post-university service program. Cuba sends many doctors and other professionals to work for two years overseas in poor countries. Where I live, in Namibia, the public is much more aware of the contribution that Cuba makes to their development compared to the contribution America makes, and so we've lost a small contest in the battle of public perception to our arch enemy Fidel Castro.

If we sent our own fresh graduates overseas for a couple of years, perhaps forgiving some of their student loan debt, we would help underdeveloped countries and in the process get back young Americans with valuable experience.

Most important, we would do something to reverse the increasing trend of anti-Americanism in the world. It is hard to imagine that a man or woman, whose life was saved by a young American doctor, would become a suicide bomber trying to take out as many innocent Americans as possible.

As it is, we are losing the contest of public opinion. In Africa, there are some young men who presumably are not Islamic fundamentalists, wearing Osama bin Laden T-shirts. We should ask, how could this be?

Yes, the plan sounds a lot like Peace Corps. But let's make it mandatory, not voluntary. Or give such financial incentive that it's difficult to say no. Make it massive. Tens of thousands of young people going back and forth across continents to learn and exchange ideas.

That sounds like real globalization.

The sooner we realize that the world is very complicated, and far from the simplistic good vs. evil that George Bush imagines, the better.

Who should pay for it all? We should. It would be far cheaper than the $5 billion we're spending per month in Iraq. Who should implement it? Our congressmen and women should. Otherwise, they should give us another proposal.

They allowed George Bush his adventure in Iraq with a minimum of public debate. They sat back and let George Bush exploit our fears. Now is their chance to lead.

Patrick Farrell grew up in Endwell, attended LeMoyne College in Syracuse, and later worked at Security Mutual in Binghamton. He now lives in Namibia.




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Story Source: Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Speaking Out; National Service

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