President Promotes Public Service through Freedom Corps



President Promotes Public Service through Freedom Corps

President Promotes Public Service through Freedom Corps

Remarks by the President in Conversation on Service

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

And first of all, let me mention something about the Peace Corps. If there are any people that are interested in spreading U.S. values around the world, the Peace Corps is a wonderful place to do so. You may share that -- some of that with us, if you don't mind, just a little bit of your experience. Someone may be watching that wonders if the Peace Corps is worthwhile.

MS. LANDER: The Peace Corps is worth every minute of it. I first decided I wanted to become a Peace Corps volunteer in third grade, when the motto was, Helping People Help Themselves. And when I graduated from college, I was fortunate, I got accepted to the Peace Corps quickly. And it was the most amazing two years of my life.

And I tell people that all the time, you're making a call for 4,000 hours of volunteer or two years. That's just a fraction of one's life span, and it's worth every minute.

THE PRESIDENT: Our goal is to double the Peace Corps over five years. Our goal is, as well, to make sure we have the Peace Corps go to nations, particularly Muslim nations, that don't understand America. They don't understand our heart; they don't understand our compassion; they don't understand that we share the same values.

I mean, listen, mom and dad love children in the Muslim world just like we do in America, and they've got to understand that; that there are some common beliefs that we share that will make -- and the Peace Corps is a good way to spread that message.

MS. LANDER: Yes, I think some of us would like to say, for a lot of people, the world is a terribly big place, but for those of us that have served in the Peace Corps, it's a large planet made up of communities.

When this story was posted in October 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers The Kerry campaign wants the RPCV vote. Read our interview with Dave Magnani, Massachusetts State Senator and Founder of "RPCVs for Kerry," and his answers to our questions about Kerry's plan to triple the size of the Peace Corps, should the next PC Director be an RPCV, and Safety and Security issues. Then read the "RPCVs for Kerry" statement of support and statements by Dr. Robert Pastor, Ambassador Parker Borg, and Paul Oostburg Sanz made at the "RPCVs for Kerry" Press Conference. RPCV Carl Pope says the key to winning this election is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for your candidate to actually go to the polls. Take our poll and tell us what you are doing to support your candidate. Finally read our wrap-up of the eight RPCVs in Senate and House races around the country and where the candidates are in their races.

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Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before. Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.

Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?

Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?

Read the stories and leave your comments.