John McAuliff (ool-44c28682.dyn.optonline.net - 68.194.134.130)
| Posted on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 4:21 pm: | |
What is at stake for the Peace Corps and returned volunteers and staff in who is elected President? Some of us have decided a great deal, as you can see by visiting http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/RPC4KerryEdwards/ It is not hard to predict that most returned Peace Corps people would be more enthusiastic about John Kerry, in part because his and Teresa's life experience and world view are more like our own. And in part because George Bush and the neocons embedded in the Administration bespeak an insularity and arrogance totally antithetical to many of us. Certainly the tone of the audience response to speakers at the NPCA conference in Chicago suggests there were not many Bush votes in the room. NPCA, however, unlike the predecessor Committee of Returned Volunteers, has striven to maintain its non-partisan character. CRV had a big contingent in the Chicago convention demonstration of 1968. NPCA was not present in the half million person march against the GOP agenda in New York last Sunday. But then, CRV no longer exists, and NPCA is well established and increasingly influential. If our alumni organization cannot do it, should returned Peace Corps volunteers and staff in some other collective fashion take a stand about who should be elected President? Do former Peace Corps folks because of their experience have something special to bring to a campaign that will be dominated by the question of how the US should conduct itself in the post 9/11 world? Will we be noticed and heard by the general public the way the opinion of military veterans is? Is there any risk that the partisanship of returned Peace Corps volunteers and staff will compromise the non-partisan character of, and bipartisan support for, the Peace Corps itself? Some of us have decided that we agree with John Kerry when he says 'this is an election in which everything we care about is on the line'. Following the initiative of Massachusetts State Senator Dave Magnani, we are forming a network called Returned Peace Corps for Kerry Edwards. We seek to make the largest possible splash by gathering many thousand signatures on a to-be-made-public statement of support for John Kerry and John Edwards. Please consider joining us by visiting http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/RPC4KerryEdwards/ |