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AmeriCorps survived the ax each year--barely. Now Bush aims to expand it by spending an additional $230 million for 25,000 more volunteers. And Bush wants $10 million for teaching support programs, $50 million to expand Senior Corps (foster grandparents and companions) and $40 million over five years to double the Peace Corps (especially in Islamic countries). The Citizen Corps will tap the naturally nosy--doormen, truckers, postmen--to report anything that looks suspicious to a new terrorist hot line. Unfurling Freedom Corps allows the President to bring the war home, to dress the entire country in green fatigues to "fight evil with acts of goodness."
There's some risk here--that volunteers will be an excuse not to hire armed, trained police for homeland security; that without a solid infrastructure in place to receive them, the most avid volunteers will get frustrated. When I called the Freedom Corps hot line that Bush touted on his promotional tour last week, I got a message saying a representative would be with me shortly. I waited 15 minutes, then gave up. The biggest challenge is always to match the right volunteer to the right task, so that an engineer is building a school, not painting one, and a lawyer is suing the city to get the drug dealers out of the park, not cleaning it up.
But for now, Freedom Corps strikes a note that may help our indulged generation awaken to what McCain describes as "a cause larger than ourselves." Bush should give McCain a call. He'd be happy to volunteer.