MLK inspired the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, believing that jobs and peaceful service would bring out and build the best in national character. If we could rebuild our flagging American character and economy by cost-effectively expanding peacefully working platoons we already have deployed, why do we hesitate in expanding them to more quickly build Dr. King's Dream?

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As the dominoes line up pointing us toward a Syrian war, we celebrate the passing of a great peacemaker who said about war in general and our phony, wasteful, set-up Vietnam War in particular:

"I want to say one other challenge that we face is simply that we must find an alternative to war and bloodshed. Anyone who feels, and there are still a lot of people who feel that way, that war can solve the social problems facing mankind is sleeping through a great revolution. President Kennedy said on one occasion, "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." The world must hear this. I pray to God that America will hear this before it is too late, because today we're fighting a war."    MLK

 

MLK on service by Galactic Free Press

As Oprah on August 28^th borrowed words from Martin Luther King Jr. in commemorating him, she pointed us toward a road that could return greatness to America and the world's character: 

"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
Oprah quoting - Martin Luther King Jr.

Oprah MLK appreciation day by Washington Post
 

As the President spoke of how MLK's kind of service could bring rich and poor Americans and world citizens together:

"But it also teaches us that the promise of this nation will only be kept when we work together. We'll have to reignite the embers of empathy and fellow feeling, the coalition of conscience that found expression in this place 50 years ago.

"And I believe that spirit is there, that true force inside each of us. I see it when a white mother recognizes her own daughter in the face of a poor black child. I see it when the black youth thinks of his own grandfather in the dignified steps of an elderly white man. It's there when the native born recognizing that striving spirit of a new immigrant, when the interracial couple connects the pain of a gay couple who were discriminated against and understands it as their own. That's where courage comes from, when we turn not from each other or on each other but towards one another, and we find that we do not walk alone. That's where courage comes from."

 

Obama MLK appreciation day by Washington Post 8-28-20013

As much of the nation commemorated a wonderful man who loved service and peacemaking, we have no program or policy that would more quickly move us closer to the world the Preacher of Peace envisioned in his "Dream."

Here you have the opportunity to sign the petition to build the American World Service Corps, which judges people by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin while building economic opportunity and peace.

And here on our original petition you can support the AWSC Congressional Proposal and leave your email address, which allows us to periodically update you (4 to 6 times a year).

Had People's Lobby's America's World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposal been implemented 27 years ago, by now about 21 million Americans would have voluntarily served in their choice of Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat, Doctors Without Borders, Head Start, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, State Conservation Corps, Heifer, TechoServe, effective local non-profits, in-need schools, etc.   

AWSC volunteers working through Head Start and as teaching assistants could have lowered class ratios; expanded Head Start to the 50% of un-served Head Start children; and enhanced the effectiveness of local community development movements.

Instead, today we rattle on about our rockets' red-glare about to be soaring over Syrian air where, it is interesting to note, a Peace Corps volunteer has never served.

Before it's too late we had better start giving more Americans and world citizens the opportunity to know each other better while building and spreading peace and economic opportunity before the air is filled with angry workers' demonstrations, saber-rattling rhetoric, exploding rockets, bloody lethal drone warfare, and suicidal terrorism.

Sixteen-medaled Marine Gen. Smedley Butler was right.   War is a racket fought on behalf of rich, comfortable, vested interests by the poor and politically illiterate.

We should all have a dream

to build a different kind of war machine

that fights enemies like

global poverty, climate change, and political illiteracy.

That's what the AWSC could be.

It would help make MLK's dream happen. 

MLK on Jobs Freedom March by Washington Post

If you think your representatives would be open to co-sponsoring the  AWSC Congressional Proposal  let us know, since we may be knocking on their doors around September. 

Authors Website: http://peopleslobby.us/

Authors Bio:

Dwayne served in the Peace Corps in the slums of Mumbai, India, worked several Habitat Projects, and was on the start-up team of the California Conservation Corps. He has a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, has been a builder, teacher, political organizer, small businessman, affordable housing developer, and a rock-piler at Rubel's Castle. Some pics and stories at http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/rubelia.

Some story tidbits about his recent well-regarded book about Rubel's Castle are available at http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/rubelia.

In 2013 Rubelia was designated a National Historic Monument, right up there with Hearst Castle. CBS clip: Rubel's Castle is on verge of listing on National Registry http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/08/07/rubel-castle-in-glendora-on-the-verge-of-getting-national-historic-recognition/

Dwayne is presently Executive Director of People's Lobby Inc (PLI, 501c4)and People's Lobby's Education Foundation (PLEF, 501c3). You can read PLI's American World Service Corps Congressional Proposal (AWSC) at
http://peopleslobby.us/awsc-congressional-proposal

Rebuilding People'Lobby web site is available at http://peopleslobby.us/

Congresswoman Woolsey (D, CA) offered to introduce it in the 111th Congress, then retracted. Please contact your Congressional reps and ask them to become an original sponsor or cosponsor. The AWSC citizen-initiated congressional proposals could be, with you pushing your representatives, among the most significant legislation passed and implemented in decades. Imagine having 21 million Americans cost effectively doing good at home or abroad over the next 27 years.

In December 2009 Ralph Nader choose People's Lobby's book, "Ordinary People Doing the Extraordinary, The Story of Ed & Joyce Koupal's People's Lobby" as one of the Ten Best Books to Read for 2009. You can purchase the book from PeoplesLobby.us or learn more at http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/books.

"This country runs on laws. If you want to change the country, write its laws," People's Lobby's founders Ed and Joyce Koupal used to say. If you want to enlighten public policy, involve millions of Americans in addressing public needs, prepare for climate weirding, etc., help make it happen. The AWSC addresses with people action many of our most pressing and costly needs. To sign the reopened American World Service Corps petition/letter, which contacts Congress for you: Paste http://www.change.org/petitions/view/field_21_million_american_world_service_corps_volunteers_over_the_next_27_years
Please help make the AWSC happen. To learn more about People's Lobby, visit the web site at www.Peopleslobby.us.

Recent books both available on line and from publishers: Every Town Needs a Castle (Prelude to next book, Every Country Needs a World Service Corps)
http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/rubelia


Ordinary People Doing the Extraordinary (Nader's 2009 TopTen Books to Read List)
http://peopleslobby.us/archives/736
Library: http://peopleslobby.us/organizations/peoples-lobby/library