Read the Original Story: May 8, 2004: "If there was ever a time when everyday people in the most deprived countries, cities and villages of the world need to see idealistic Americans working to help them, it is today when we are engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of people everywhere," said John Kerry

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Thailand: Peace Corps Thailand: The Peace Corps in Thailand: May 14, 2004: Headlines: COS - Thailand: Speaking Out: Election2004 Kerry: Albany Times Union: Thailand RPCV H. William Batt says it's foolish to think Peace Corps can fix U.S. image : Read the Original Story: May 8, 2004: "If there was ever a time when everyday people in the most deprived countries, cities and villages of the world need to see idealistic Americans working to help them, it is today when we are engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of people everywhere," said John Kerry

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-236-201.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.236.201) on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 8:36 pm: Edit Post

"If there was ever a time when everyday people in the most deprived countries, cities and villages of the world need to see idealistic Americans working to help them, it is today when we are engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of people everywhere," said John Kerry

If there was ever a time when everyday people in the most deprived countries, cities and villages of the world need to see idealistic Americans working to help them, it is today when we are engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of people everywhere, said John Kerry

"If there was ever a time when everyday people in the most deprived countries, cities and villages of the world need to see idealistic Americans working to help them, it is today when we are engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of people everywhere," said John Kerry

Kerry calls for new commitment to public service by young people

MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer

aturday, May 8, 2004

(05-08) 14:36 PDT NEW ORLEANS (AP) --

John Kerry on Saturday urged college graduates to commit to public service, saying their participation in the Peace Corps and other programs can overcome the damage to America's image from the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.

"America needs your generation to surprise those who underestimate the idealism and commitment of young people in the United States of America," the Democratic presidential candidate said at commencement ceremonies at Southern University at New Orleans.

"If there was ever a time when everyday people in the most deprived countries, cities and villages of the world need to see idealistic Americans working to help them, it is today when we are engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of people everywhere," he said at the historically black college, which awarded degrees to 670 graduates during the ceremony.

The Massachusetts senator said the Peace Corps was "the most powerful symbol of nonmilitary service in our history."

Kerry acknowledged the reluctance of many young people today to enter public service, but said he was confident that can be overcome.

"I know that many of you may be skeptical, and I don't blame you," said Kerry. "It's hard to find faith and answer the call of citizenship and service when you believe today's call to arms may be tomorrow's broken promise."

A spokesman for President Bush's campaign, Steve Schmidt, said that the president often has called "young people to public service and the idealism that has been a consistent hallmark of America's youth."

Kerry said the prison abuses in Iraq "have done enormous damage to our country. They've hurt us in our objectives in Iraq, and empowered those who find fault with America."

Young people, Kerry said, can make a difference.

"It requires us to work even harder to present who we really are and if you choose to, you can help do that," Kerry said.

Kerry made the case for a new focus on the Peace Corps, noting there are only 6,700 volunteers around the world, much fewer than in the 1960s.

"Because of the day-to-day focus on just making ends meet, because of a culture that too often puts self over community, too many people have lost sight of a basic truth about America. The fact is, our greatest strength, our greatest responsibility and our greatest need today," Kerry said, are service and citizenship.

Kerry said he rejects suggestions that young people have become cynical about politics. He said many college students get involved in community projects and other volunteer activities, even while they spurn traditional political activism.

He says he can tap into that energy and bring them into the voting booth, and his campaign has focused on college campuses.

"America needs you on the front lines," Kerry said. "The fact is this kind of service will not only change every American's heart. It will change the way America works."

The Democrat said a generation of idealistic young people working in developing countries is a long-term solution to repairing the country's image.

"We need once again for young Americans to serve in all the places where we can make a difference -- from the Middle East to African nations ravaged by AIDS," said Kerry.

Kerry spent Saturday meeting privately with supporters before delivering the commencement speech during his third swing in recent weeks through Louisiana, which Bush won in 2000.



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Story Source: San Francisco Chronicle

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Election2004 - Kerry

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By Philip H. Costa (dialup-4.157.56.234.dial1.boston1.level3.net - 4.157.56.234) on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 3:53 pm: Edit Post

You don't have to love your president to want to do some good in the world...

By Dave Wessel (adsl-222-55-118.msy.bellsouth.net - 68.222.55.118) on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:23 pm: Edit Post

I firmly believe that Peace Corps Volunteers around the world are doing more good for the image of the U.S. than any other Government sponsored group including and especially the U.S.Foreign Service. I served in Colombia '62-'64 and went again as a Crisis Corps Volunteer to El Salvador in 2001-02. It was in El Salvador that I realized the tremendous image that is being projected by PCVs. I was looking one day for a PCV in the department of Uslatan, pretty far back in the campo and became lost. I asked a local
young man if he knew a PCV named Mike Osland and he responded by saying "oh yes, my good friend (mi buen amigo) lives up the way, I'll show you."
It was then that I knew that we were making "buen
amigos all over the world with PCVs. So John Kerry is right in that sense. But I agree that we will have a long way to go to change the image of the U.S. in the Arab world after the war in Iraq and the treatment of those prisoners at Abu Ghrib. It will take years and much more than the Peace Corps. Dave Wessel

By Amanda J. Burr (64.12.116.11) on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 8:33 pm: Edit Post

When I was in the Peace Corps I was lead to believe that we were invited into the countries that we served. I went to Colombia and served both Colombia and the United States, in turn, from 1972-1974. It took months for me to establish my credibility even with my more educated acquaintances and friends. They were always most suspicious of my/our paternalistic/imperialist intentions in their country. And I was only a Peace Corps Nurse. Imagine what they thought about the business volunteers, and the cultural development volunteers. Educated friends, and I refer to doctors and chemists and engineers, believed that The United States put birth control hormones in the Pepsi Cola. When I arrived in Colombia The Peace Corps had recently been thrown out of Bolivia and propaganda films were made about the reasons why The Peace Corps was thrown out. The Peace Corps was eventually asked to leave Colombia and Ecuador. It is likely that The Peace Corps serves fewer countries today than we did in our heyday and it is not because the folks in other countries couldn't use a little help from some skilled and professional idealists. I hate to sound negative but I think it is pretty ridiculous and farfetched to think that Iraq will be inviting US Peace Corps idealists to help out in my life time, but then I am getting pretty old.

By Mishelle (63-230-196-9.phnx.qwest.net - 63.230.196.9) on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 12:56 pm: Edit Post

I don't think Kerry has it exactly right--cynicism and lack of faith in politics is not the real reason youth today are not interested in serving their community, whether abroad in the Peace Corps or similar organization in the U.S. It is money, plain and simple. I've been teaching for a decade now and I'm continually surprised at the number of my students whose primary concern in life is getting rich. This is not a political issue alone, this is a social crisis! Kids are following the examples being laid out for them, and we ALL are to blame, not just a small percentage breaking the rules in Washington.
Mishelle Shepard
Czech Republic 1994-96


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