2011.01.19: January 19, 2011: Mike Honda writes: Wanted: Modern-Day Sargent Shrivers
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2011.01.19: January 19, 2011: Mike Honda writes: Wanted: Modern-Day Sargent Shrivers
Mike Honda writes: Wanted: Modern-Day Sargent Shrivers
This year, as we celebrate the Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary and its countless contributions to communities worldwide, let us remember Sargent Shriver's selfless commitment and visionary leadership in creating a pioneering organization that provides opportunities for young Americans to serve as ambassadors, promoting world peace and friendship around the world. As the founder and first director of Peace Corps, Shriver's impassioned call to help those in need, will have a lasting impression on past, present, and future Peace Corps volunteers who accept the call for service to the international community. Shriver put it best when he said, ""The Peace Corps represents some, if not all, of the best virtues in this society. It stands for everything that America has ever stood for. It stands for everything we believe in and hope to achieve in the world."
Mike Honda writes: Wanted: Modern-Day Sargent Shrivers
Wanted: Modern-Day Sargent Shrivers
Rep. Mike Honda
Posted: January 19, 2011 04:19 PM
America lost one of its shining lights this week. Sargent Shriver, an unfaltering beacon for peace and an indefatigable bastion against poverty, was a tireless bearer of burdens of those less fortunate. One of our nation's greatest unsung heroes, Sargent Shriver stood for all the right things and campaigned for all the right causes.
Spearheading this nation's first War on Poverty, it was the farsighted Shriver who understood that poverty was inextricably linked to the security of the nation and that nothing short of a war was needed.
Shriver's work served as a catalyst for change and at the crux of Shriver's efforts was the concept of service - service to our neighbors, near or far, in desperate need of a helping hand. His legacy of public service lives on in the successful organizations of peace and justice he founded and led, from the Peace Corps, Head Start, and Job Corps, to Volunteers in Service to America, Community Action Program and Legal Services to the Poor.
Almost 50 years later, Shriver's message and efforts are as poignant and applicable as ever, as our nation's poverty and income inequality rates continue to soar. America stands at a real crossroads and the loss of one of our great American leaders reminds us of our nation's needs for a modern-day Shriver to once again take the helm in Round Two of this war on poverty, eliminating once and for all this festering wound. Filling Shriver's shoes will be difficult. President Clinton was right: "Never has America had a stronger warrior for peace and against poverty than Sargent Shriver".
This year, as we celebrate the Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary and its countless contributions to communities worldwide, let us remember Sargent Shriver's selfless commitment and visionary leadership in creating a pioneering organization that provides opportunities for young Americans to serve as ambassadors, promoting world peace and friendship around the world. As the founder and first director of Peace Corps, Shriver's impassioned call to help those in need, will have a lasting impression on past, present, and future Peace Corps volunteers who accept the call for service to the international community. Shriver put it best when he said, ""The Peace Corps represents some, if not all, of the best virtues in this society. It stands for everything that America has ever stood for. It stands for everything we believe in and hope to achieve in the world."
A public servant with unparalleled service to this country, we will mightily miss the magnanimous Sargent Shriver. To our humble and faithful public servant, you've done well.
Michael Honda, a Democratic congressman from California served as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador from 1965-67.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: January, 2011; Shriver; Peace Corps El Salvador; Directory of El Salvador RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for El Salvador RPCVs; Sargent Shriver (Director 1961 - 1966); Figures; Peace Corps Directors; Maryland
When this story was posted in May 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Peace Corps: The Next Fifty Years As we move into the Peace Corps' second fifty years, what single improvement would most benefit the mission of the Peace Corps? Read our op-ed about the creation of a private charitable non-profit corporation, independent of the US government, whose focus would be to provide support and funding for third goal activities. Returned Volunteers need President Obama to support the enabling legislation, already written and vetted, to create the Peace Corps Foundation. RPCVs will do the rest. |
| 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." |
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Story Source: Huffington Post
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - El Salvador; Directors - Shriver; Figures; Directors
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