Common Interest - Politics

President Barack Obama and his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have plans to force all young adults, aged 18-25, to serve a minimum of 3 months in a "Civilian Service" that will be larger than the U.S. Military.

Rahm blatantly outlines this in his book "The Plan: Big Ideas for America." See it for yourself on pages 60-67: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=ZUjHNefQPiUC&dq=the+plan&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=uL7Y2yWRxj&sig=4O2Jka1mIq21_TAbVyKwH1YwAQo&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA64,M1

Barack Obama endorsed the plan in a speech he made in Colorado, stating: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objective that we’ve set. We’ve gotta have a “Civilian National Security Force” that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." Listen to the speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s&NR=1

Rahm Emanuel reveals more about his mandatory service agenda in the following two interviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtDSwyCPEsQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0B7dOQwKm0

The government does not own your body or your time, and if you haven't committed a crime, the government has NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to mandate that you labor on its behalf.

Stand up for the right to control your own life and your personal liberty. Sign the pact now and REFUSE to serve in any "Civil Service" plans Obama and Emanuel might have in store for us. Join this group if you are willing to take a stand against this gross overstepping of government power, the likes of which we haven't seen since the institution of the military draft.

Please note, this is not a partisan issue. No one here is vying for or against any particular political party or candidate; this is simply an argument against this one specific policy, created by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and endorsed by Barack Obama. We are specifically concerned about how this policy violates the basic human right of self-ownership, and how it will hamper this right's continued perseverance in America.

Also, this does NOT mean we are against community service or volunteerism. Many of us do plenty of volunteer and/or charity work in our own communities because we CHOOSE to, out of the goodness of our hearts. That is the whole point of volunteerism, performing a service due to one's personal choice to make a difference, not because of some government mandate. 

***************************************************************

ATTENTION SKEPTICS!

Many of you have expressed doubt that Obama's proposed plan will, in fact, be mandatory. In addition to everything I have listed in the "Recent News" section, here is some additional information that debunks this myth.

Recently, legislation known as the "Congressional Commission on Civic Service Act," H.R. 1444, has been introduced to the House of Representatives. Text from Section 4, Subsection B6 reads that the proposed commission would explore "Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable ***mandatory service requirement** for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented."

Track the bill here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1444

Additionally, Richard Danzig, a top adviser to the President-elect, wrote a book entitled, "National Service: What Would It Mean?"

On page 224, Danzig states that, "Specifically, we would impose a 5 percent surcharge on the tax paid each year by all income taxpayers, but we would forgive that charge to anyone who had previously performed 1 year of national service." 

Essentially, this would mean that you would have to put in an extra 3 weeks of labor every year to pay off your "refusal to serve" tax... for the rest of your life! So whether you choose to "serve" or not, your labor is being stolen from you either way.

But Danzig doesn't stop there; not only will you be fined an extra 5% of your income, but "In this system, individuals claiming conscientious objection, hardship, school or occupational imperatives, or physical or mental deficiencies would receive no exemption."

There will be no exemptions from this program. Even if you are handicapped, impoverished, or object on moral/religious grounds. Either you serve, or you pay tribute every year until you die...

That 5% of your income could be put towards a college fund for your kids, a retirement fund, or even just help to pay the rent or buy groceries month to month... 

What this plan effectively does is make it financially irresponsible for you to opt out of service. Over time, that 5% of your yearly income can really start to add up... 

The message being sent here is this: This program is "voluntary", but only if you don't mind the government stealing 5% of your money every year for the rest of your life...

If you still need convincing about the coercive nature of this plan, or the historical precedents of similar plans in other countries, again, please read the "Recent News" section of this group.

***************************************************************

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
-13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

"Conscription rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state — not for parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers — to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society. That assumption isn’t a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea. America was founded on the principle of individual liberty — that the government exists to serve, not enslave, the people. Yet conscription is a form of slavery, a horrible and costly exception to America’s founding principle. It is morally repugnant to the ideals of a free society." 
-President Ronald Reagan 

"Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty? Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life itself, not when the safety of their country and its liberties may demand the sacrifice, but whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it? Sir, I almost disdain to go to quotations and references to prove that such an abominable doctrine has no foundation in the Constitution of the country. It is enough to know that that instrument was intended as the basis of a free government, and that the power contended for is incompatible with any notion of personal liberty." -Daniel Webster, 1814 

"It is said that a compulsory draft is a democratic system. I deny that is has anything to do with democracy. It is neither democratic nor undemocratic. It is far more typical of totalitarian of totalitarian nations than of democratic nations. The theory behind it leads directly to totalitarianism. It is absolutely opposed to the principles of individual liberty which have always been considered a part of American democracy." -Senator Robert Taft, 1940

"Young people are not raw material to be employed by the political class on behalf of whatever fashionable political, military, or social cause catches its fancy. In a free society, their lives are not the playthings of government." 
-Congressman Ron Paul