2011.01.19: January 19, 2011: Laurence Leamer writes: Sarge's Dream

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Nepal: Peace Corps Nepal : Peace Corps Nepal: New Stories: 2011.01.19: January 19, 2011: Laurence Leamer writes: Sarge's Dream

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Laurence Leamer writes: Sarge's Dream

Laurence Leamer writes: Sarge's Dream

Sarge was ninety-five and lived an incredibly rich and productive life, and much of my sadness today is about his greatest creation, the Peace Corps. In 2003, Sarge gave a speech at Yale University in which he said, "We didn't go far enough! Our dreams were large, but our actions were small. We never really gave the goal of 'World Wide Peace' an overwhelming commitment or established a clear, inspiring vision for attaining it. If we had, the world wouldn't be in the mess we are in, and what could have been should have been." The truth is that the organization he founded is in every way diminished. Two years ago I volunteered with a program of the National Peace Corps Association of returned volunteers to try to get Congress to raise the Peace Corps budget dramatically pushing toward President Obama's announced goal of doubling the corps by the fiftieth anniversary this year. As I got into it, I saw that it wasn't just the numbers that needed to be increased. The organization needed to be reformed, torn apart and built anew the way Sarge would have done it. After 9/11 the Peace Corps had lost its way, concerned more with security than change, pulling out of a number of crucial countries, building high walls behind which the directors lived in almost as exalted a fashion as the ambassadors. The attrition rate was horrible, many of the programs deeply flawed. And the bureaucrats in Washington went home early and did not listen to the volunteers. People like Senator Chris Dodd, himself a returned volunteer, and Senator Patrick Leahy, knew that there were serious problems but they did nothing. Dodd backed off a bill that would have begun the reforms. NPCA took money from the Peace Corps to publish the volunteer magazine and was hopelessly compromised. I coined the slogan "Bold New Peace Corps" to suggest that it was not just money that was needed but change. I called all kinds of national media trying to get them to do a story on what was wrong. Nobody would do anything. A political editor at NPR was at least honest. He said, "Nobody cares." I kept pushing at NPCA. I upset too many people and nobody at the organization cared about reform. I was pushed out of having any further involvement with the campaign.

Laurence Leamer writes: Sarge's Dream

Sarge's Dream

by Laurence Leamer

Author of a Kennedy trilogy and "Madness Under the Royal Palms"

Posted: January 19, 2011 08:45 AM

When I joined the Peace Corps in 1964, Sargent Shriver was my hero. I was stationed two days from a road in the mountains of the Himalayan kingdom and I never met the director of the Peace Corps. But he inspired me. He was "Sarge" to all of us, and we often talked about him. He visited Nepal once, this exuberant presence who believed that the only thing higher than Mt. Everest was the human spirit. He thought people were capable of anything, even me. We just had to do it.

When I started my trilogy on the Kennedy family in the late eighties, I got to know Sarge, and I realized it was not easy being married to a Kennedy. Sarge was a Shriver, scion of a distinguished old Baltimore family, but once he married Eunice Kennedy, he was a Kennedy but a lesser Kennedy. He wanted to run for governor of Illinois in 1960, but his brother-in-law Senator Jack Kennedy was running for president, and the Kennedys always came first. When Sarge ran for president in 1976, his brother-in-law Senator Edward Kennedy was less than helpful. The presidency was for a "real" Kennedy not a mock one.

Sarge was an elegant man. His liberalism was passionate and sincere but he lacked the common touch. He was profoundly and authentically religious. Unlike many politicians, he did not use religion. Religion used him. He had serious religious studies on his bed stand and he went to mass every morning. I asked him once why he did so and he said it was because he needed God's help so much to get through the day. That was not a Sarge most people saw.

Sarge was ninety-five and lived an incredibly rich and productive life, and much of my sadness today is about his greatest creation, the Peace Corps. In 2003, Sarge gave a speech at Yale University in which he said, "We didn't go far enough! Our dreams were large, but our actions were small. We never really gave the goal of 'World Wide Peace' an overwhelming commitment or established a clear, inspiring vision for attaining it. If we had, the world wouldn't be in the mess we are in, and what could have been should have been."

The truth is that the organization he founded is in every way diminished. Two years ago I volunteered with a program of the National Peace Corps Association of returned volunteers to try to get Congress to raise the Peace Corps budget dramatically pushing toward President Obama's announced goal of doubling the corps by the fiftieth anniversary this year. As I got into it, I saw that it wasn't just the numbers that needed to be increased. The organization needed to be reformed, torn apart and built anew the way Sarge would have done it.

After 9/11 the Peace Corps had lost its way, concerned more with security than change, pulling out of a number of crucial countries, building high walls behind which the directors lived in almost as exalted a fashion as the ambassadors. The attrition rate was horrible, many of the programs deeply flawed. And the bureaucrats in Washington went home early and did not listen to the volunteers.

People like Senator Chris Dodd, himself a returned volunteer, and Senator Patrick Leahy, knew that there were serious problems but they did nothing. Dodd backed off a bill that would have begun the reforms. NPCA took money from the Peace Corps to publish the volunteer magazine and was hopelessly compromised. I coined the slogan "Bold New Peace Corps" to suggest that it was not just money that was needed but change. I called all kinds of national media trying to get them to do a story on what was wrong. Nobody would do anything. A political editor at NPR was at least honest. He said, "Nobody cares." I kept pushing at NPCA. I upset too many people and nobody at the organization cared about reform. I was pushed out of having any further involvement with the campaign.

Last Friday, in the biggest story the Peace Corps has had in years, ABC's 20/20 did a devastating report on the 1,078 female volunteers who have been sexually assaulted or raped during the past decade. If I extrapolate correctly from these figures, that means that a woman has roughly a one in twenty five chance of being attacked. These are the Peace Corps figures and one would assume that many women remain quiet. The ABC story reported by Brian Ross and produced by Anna Schecter had six brave women on camera talking about how their abuse did not end once their attacker or attackers left them. In several cases, the Peace Corps shuttled them out of the country and forget them.

ABC also interviewed Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff, vociferous critics of the Peace Corps who have done prodigious work documenting all kinds of problems. That was clearly not as intriguing a subject to 20/20's viewers, and their segment was cut. But that story is out there waiting to be done, and 20/20 was only a beginning.

I know that some of my fellow returned volunteers are reading this and thinking, "Why does he write this now on the very day Sarge died." I write it now because on this evening I remember Sarge as he was and I remember his dream and I know how far away from that we have come.




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: January, 2011; Shriver; Peace Corps Nepal; Directory of Nepal RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Nepal RPCVs; Sargent Shriver (Director 1961 - 1966); Figures; Peace Corps Directors; Speaking Out; Maryland





When this story was posted in February 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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How Volunteers Remember Sarge Date: January 18 2011 No: 1487 How Volunteers Remember Sarge
As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge."

PCV Murder Investigated Date: January 18 2011 No: 1477 PCV Murder Investigated
ABC News has investigated the murder of Benin PCV Kate Puzey. Read our original coverage of the crime, comments on Peace Corps actions, the email Puzey sent her country director about sexual incidents with Puzey's students and with another PCV, the backstory on how RPCVs helped the Puzey family, and Peace Corps' official statement. PCOL Editorial: One major shortcoming that the Puzey murder highlights is that Peace Corps does not have a good procedure in place for death notifications.

Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal Date: November 9 2010 No: 1460 Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal
The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all.

Jan 9, 2011: Push for the Peace Corps Date: January 9 2011 No: 1464 Jan 9, 2011: Push for the Peace Corps
Rajeev Goyal Pushes for the Peace Corps 20 Dec
Denis Dutton founded Arts & Letters Daily 2 Jan
Jim Carter promotes organ exchange 29 Dec
Bob Hollinger embraced the Toyama-ryu style of karate 27 Dec
Anthony Siracusa is Riding a bike around world 27 Dec
Marianne Combs writes: Another Upheaval in Ivory Coast 25 Dec
Kathy Rousso documents weaving methods in Guatemala 24 Dec
Ramsey Nix writes: Christmas in Mongolia 23 Dec
Leanne Moore writes: Coming Back to America 23 Dec
Cancer Victim Linda Lahme dreams of Africa 23 Dec
The RPCV Who Changed American Parenting 22 Dec
Dick Holbrooke at the Peace Corps 22 Dec
Mahlon Barash publishes "Imágenes del Perú" 20 Dec
Susan Luz writes "The Nightingale of Mosul" 18 Dec
RPCV arrested in alleged Sandinista 'Land Grab' 17 Dec
Peter DiCampo captures village life in Ghana 16 Dec
John Coyne writes: Peace Corps Prose 16 Dec
Kathleen Stephens presses China to rein in North Korea 15 Dec
Greg Parsley writes: PC taught me to bypass bureaucrats 14 Dec
Pat Waak writes: Peace Corps Pays Off 8 Dec
David Matthews wins NATO medal for work in Afghanistan 7 Dec
Ralph Bolton wins award in Anthropology 9 Nov

Nov 8, 2010: The 50th Begins Date: November 9 2010 No: 1457 Nov 8, 2010: The 50th Begins
University of Michigan commemorates 50th 16 Oct
Wittenberg University also has claim on 50th 31 Oct
Historical Marker Unveiled to Celebrate 50th 15 Oct
Directors Discuss Impact of Service 13 Oct
Mary Morgan writes: Some thoughts on the 50th 16 Oct
Colombia I Holds Reunion at Rutgers 31 Oct
Remembering the Early Program in Ghana 23 Oct
George Packer writes: Meaning of the Mid-Terms 2 Nov
Steve Driehaus Defeated for re-election 2 Nov
Michelle Obama's Uncle was PCV in India 1 Nov
Chic Dambach writes "Exhaust the Limits" 31 Oct
Alrick Brown Directs Documentary on Rwanda 31 Oct
Rajeev Goyal writes: Obama Does Nothing for Peace Corps 31 Oct
Dr. Paul Frommer Created Language for 'Avatar' 20 Oct
Cy Kukenbaker Directs Movie about Soccer in Malawi 15 Oct
Peace Corps has no Institutional Memory 14 Oct
Kristof and Stacia Nordin demonstrate permaculture in Malawi 9 Oct
Volunteer Stephanie Chance dies in Niger 8 Oct
Peace Corps volunteer Census hits 40-year high 4 Oct
Malaysia PM wants Peace Corps to Return 25 Sep
Volunteer Thomas Maresco Murdered in Lesotho 4 Sep
Johnathan Miller launchs Airborne Lifeline 26 Aug

Memo to Incoming Director Williams Date: August 24 2009 No: 1419 Memo to Incoming Director Williams
PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams

Join Us Mr. President! Date: June 26 2009 No: 1380 Join Us Mr. President!
"We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign. Returned Volunteers rally and and march to the White House to support a bold new Peace Corps for a new age. Latest: Senator Dodd introduces Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 .



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Story Source: Huffington Post

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Nepal; Directors - Shriver; Figures; Directors; Speaking Out

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