A New View of Citizenship

 

Members of The Peace Corps were everyday people doing everyday tasks: geologists, foresters, computer scientists, agriculturalists, and small-business advisors. These individuals worked for all of humanity.   In his article, "Has the Peace Corps Made a Difference?" author David Searles says:

 

"Virtually all volunteers (92% in surveys) said that the Peace Corps influence on their lives has been profound. Their concept of the world and their place in it has changed permanently for the better.   Whatever ...provincialism they began with has been replaced by recognition that we are all in this together."

 

       

My book, The Tao of Public Service, advances the ideal of "Public Service as a Way of life." But this is not the ultra-noble ideal of total sacrifice most often seen in a spiritual context.    It is service based on recognition of the practical reality that in living our human lives "we are all in this together." This understanding requires that we do our best work for each other.    This is the essence of the New Citizen.  

 

The New Citizen seeks perfection yet not the all-encompassing perfection of the omnipotent or the omniscient, but the limited perfection of the task at hand. One has to strive for the immediate and attainable ideal.   It is a matter of character. One has to try and be the ideal:   worker, teacher, doctor, lawyer, soldier, judge, professor, president, governor, mayor, CEO, husband, wife, son, daughter, father, or mother one can become.    

 

My fellow citizens there can be, in our day and in our time, a new birth of freedom, founded on character.   However, not a character rooted in the routine of farm life and reflecting a unity of activity.   But rather a character rooted in a common striving that finds its expression in "perfect service."   And in this way, we can build a better world.     

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