I had a brilliant post written on the debate between having a mandatory national service program/draft. Then as I was making a stunning closing argument against it Safari threw up an error message, said the page was reloading and everything but the above photo and caption was gone.
Several expletives later, I realized I still had to write something, and I would be unable to recreate the masterpiece I had just written. So ignore the photo above, and the caption—it has nothing to do with this post. (The brilliance mentioned above is likely in my own mind.)
My dad was a child of the depression. He grew up in an era of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Civil Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration. Programs that literally put people back on their feet during the Great Depression. Growing up I often heard stories around the dinner table of the CCC, CWA and WPA and the good they did. The high school I went to plays football in a recently renovated CWA stadium, Breese Stevens Field.
The CCC performed 300 types of work projects within ten approved general classifications:
- Structural improvements: bridges, fire lookout towers, service buildings
- Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, foot trails and airport landing fields
- Erosion control: check dams, terracing, and vegetable covering
- Flood control: irrigation, drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, rip-rapping
- Forest culture: planting trees and shrubs, timber stand improvement, seed collection, nursery work
- Forest protection: fire prevention, fire pre-suppression, firefighting, insect and disease control
- Landscape and recreation: public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site clearing and development
- Range: stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals
- Wildlife: stream improvement, fish stocking, food and cover planting
- Miscellaneous: emergency work, surveys, mosquito control
Obviously the program would be updated and the elimination of predatory animals would not be a thing in the modern version of the program.
The WPA, and its brief forerunner the CWA, performed the following:
The WPA built traditional infrastructure of the New Deal such as roads, bridges, schools, courthouses, hospitals, sidewalks, waterworks, and post-offices, but also constructed museums, swimming pools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, coliseums, markets, fairgrounds, tennis courts, zoos, botanical gardens, auditoriums, waterfronts, city halls, gyms, and university unions. Most of these are still in use today.
and
A significant aspect of the Works Progress Administration was the Federal Project Number One, which had five different parts: the Federal Art Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Writers Project, and the Historical Records Survey. The government wanted to provide new federal cultural support instead of just providing direct grants to private institutions. After only one year, over 40,000 artists and other talented workers had been employed through this project in the United States.
Imagine if we had programs like this again today—volunteers between the ages of 18-25 could work for both agencies for two years with the guarantee of college tuition being paid upon completion of a term. The maintenance backlog in our national, and state parks could be eliminated. Lead pipes across the country could be removed and replaced, aspiring artists could have a creative outlet, and not have to starve to do what they love, just to name a few of the benefits to our communities.
These programs have had a lasting impact on our nation—they not only put thousands to work, they built our infrastructure. Of course conservative America hated the programs (which is a diary in and of itself). A voluntary national service program like this would provide enormous opportunities for all Americans, but especially for those that are poor. Now the odds of any of this happening with Republicans in control of government is slim and none. But it is something to think about—what could be more patriotic that serving in a program dedicated to rebuilding America. This is what would make America Great Again—well, that and getting rid of the current embarrassment in the White House.