Compulsory Volunteering

"Hey Buddy, Can You Spare Me A Dime...Or Some Time?"

I keep catching glimpses of this topic in the news every now and then. I saw a brief mention of it this morning on FOX news and I just had to look further into the situation and write about what I found.

Since I don’t have any children, I haven’t actually had any firsthand experiences with the modern cultural bastardization of the concept of charity and volunteer work, but I know it’s out there and that it is spreading.

When I was a kid I was taught by my parents that it was a good idea to share my toys with other children in a social situation. As I grew older I learned about doing charitable work, again from my parents, through our involvement with our church and programs like Operation Santa Clause—processing and transporting donated toys to needy families in my little home town in Alabama.

As a college student and an adult, I’ve basically been free to become a stingy old SOB and hoard all of my money and the balance of my time not spent sleeping or working for my own use if I wanted to.

After all, I pay my taxes, and once the heavy handed government tax levy is met, wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that my time and money are mine, Mine, MINE…ALL MINE?

Right?

Am I missing something here?

Well, actually that’s not true. Fortunately my Mama raised a man that likes doing charity work, and I’ve spent literally thousands of hours over the past ten years working for Habitat for Humanity and more recently supporting the arts in my local community.

Funny thing though--my community service work, whether it’s driving nails on a house for Habitat, serving food in a shelter on Thanksgiving, or building sets for children’s plays at the local theater, all share one thing in common:

I VOLUNTEER to do the WORK.

That’s V-O-L-U-N-T-E-E-R.

Do you understand what I mean?

Well, volunteering isn’t what it used to be, and the government has come riding to the rescue believing that they once again need to step in and help remedy a situation that they have actually created.

Did you know that the government (public) schools and now many private colleges and universities have decided to make “community service” by their students compulsory, not voluntary? They're actually telling their students that they "owe" a portion of their lives to "the common good."

I think that the concept is a complete load of crappola. This is yet another example of socialism creeping insideously into our culture and education system.

It’s not enough that many of us spend forty to fifty percent of our time working to pay the government the money that they take from our own families and give to total strangers, now the government and the government schools are promoting “giving” even more of our time to total strangers—this time under the guise of “public service.”

Tulane University in New Orleans is the latest victim of this skewed politically correct insanity:

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Tulane University announced plans Thursday to lay off about 230 faculty members and shut down some programs to cope with the financial damage done by Hurricane Katrina.

In a set of budget cuts totaling about $100 million, the university will eliminate about 180 faculty positions at its medical school and about 50 in its undergraduate and graduate programs.

Before the storm struck on August 29, Tulane had about 2,500 faculty members and 13,200 students -- nearly 8,000 undergraduates and 5,200 in graduate school. But the campus in the city's Uptown section has been closed since Katrina's floodwaters ruined New Orleans and scattered most of its half-million inhabitants.

The university plans to resume classes next month, though it expects a costly drop in enrollment.

Here is what their announcement to returning undergrad students had to say:

The College will include several features to enhance the overall Tulane undergraduate experience, including a common core curriculum for all undergraduates, a public service requirement and an expanded opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary studies.

Well isn’t that special.

After you or your parents have come up with the $12,695 worth of tuition for one semester of education, now the politically correct, socially conscious morons in the Dean’s office have decided to donate even more of your personal time to “public service.”

When the heck are you supposed to do things like study and eat and sleep? While driving home from or in between your three part time jobs you have to work to afford an apartment?

And another thing...if I'm a student at Tulane, do I get to pick how I spend my time doing my public service, or is the university going to force me to work for some wild eyed list of eco-fascist-tree hugging causes?

You know that they won't be able to resist abusing all of this free labor, and I bet you $100 that certain perfectly good charitable causes will probably be off limits--things like delivering free phone cards to wounded veterans or other activities despised by liberals.

Maybe they'll force me to man (or is it woman...person, whatever) a gay/lesbian/transgender suicide hotline every other weekend during winter semester? "If you're going to use a pistol...make sure that you use a hollow point bullet..."

Couldn't I just elect to get my community service credit by putting on an orange jumpsuit and joining the county prisoners picking up trash on the side of the highways on weekends? They could have their own custom jumpsuits made up with "Tulane Green Wave" on the back and get some free advertising while we're at it.

Probably not...

All I know is that I’m happy as hell that I’ve already gotten my fill of college years ago, because otherwise you might be reading about a student going “postal” in the Admissions Office if I had to try to get an education today.

I think that I’ll go clean my guns now…