The MorePeaceCorp Campaign has an online petition to Barack Obama asking him to honor his pledge to double the Peace Corps by 2011. I'm asking anyone who believes in the Peace Corps to go to the petition website and sign. It will only take a second. Today is the last day to sign, the petition will be presented to President Obama tomorrow.
I was lucky enough to have served in the Peace Corps from 2004 to 2006. I served in Morocco, and I lived in a little Berber village in the north east near the city of Taza. I wrote a diary series about my experience for Peace Corps Week last year. I haven't written many diaries so they are easy to find in my history. I won't go into it now, because this diary is about the petition.
The Peace Corps gives Americans the opportunity to really experience what life is like around the world. So many of America's problems, I think, come from the fact that we know so little. What is it like to not have running water? Electricity? Fruit and vegetables? Heat?
What is the difference between want and need?
The text of the petition reads:
To: President-elect Obama
We congratulate you on your election victory.
We are inspired by your call to U.S. citizens to serve the nation, and are especially excited by your often repeated pledge to double the Peace Corps by the 50th anniversary in 2011.
We sign this petition to express our strong support for a bigger, better and bolder Peace Corps. The Peace Corps can and should be at the foundation of your administration's renewed commitment to reach out to other nations in the very best traditions of the American people - cooperation, friendship, cross-cultural understanding and positive engagement designed to improve the human condition for millions of individuals around the world.
We look forward to working with you in achieving your goals for the Peace Corps.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
It is short and simple, because this isn't complicated. Yet president after president has broken their promise to work on getting more volunteers in the field. There is plenty of work to do out there.
To sign the petition, go here. Today is the last day to sign.
Go here to donate to a volunteer's project.
What kind of a peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave, or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living; the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children. Not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time.