Practical definition: Involuntary servitude

Posted by Marc Hodak on November 7, 2008 under Practical definitions | Read the First Comment

Will our first black president bring back involuntary servitude, i.e., requiring certain people to work for no pay in jobs they don’t choose?

I’m not sure this is serious, since Obama was careful not to mention mandates in the context of National Service, but this is what it says on Change.gov, which appears to be a bona fide Obama web site:

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. [emphasis mine]

I wonder what that massive youth vote that propelled BHO to victory will think about being sentenced to 100 hours of community service per year in college as a result of electing him.

HT: Coyote, who is mining this great find to the hilt

Update: Well, Change.gov is living up to its name by changing the last sentence quoted above to:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.