Tag Archives: AWSC

AWSC, AWSC Proposal, Blog

AWSCNS Proposal Summary

This is how a summary for the proposed American World Service Corps National Service (AWSCNS) Congressional Proposal  could potentially look.

 

 “Imagine how much stronger we’d all be if we had this well-stocked AWSC tool in our diplomatic and public policy pouch…Put that in your spinach pipe…”

 

The  fuller text, written for the layman to grasp , is at the link above  and below.  American World Service Corps National Service (AWSCNS) Congressional Proposal   – provides the opportunity for every U.S. citizen, and every other person residing in the United States, between the ages of 18 and 74 to perform a 1-2-year period of peaceful, non-militarized, voluntary national service.

National service opportunities are provided through civilian service in a federal, state, or local government programs or with community-based agencies, 501-c-3s, or entities as outlined in the proposal who are engaged in meeting human, educational, environmental, public safety needs. and job and development goals at home and abroad.

Uses transferable educational, housing, health, tax credit, etc., incentives to build, over a seven-year period, the AWSCNS to one million volunteers per year.

Includes as part or all of its funding a nontraditional funding mechanism (NTFM) via a  social media, web-driven, publicly viewable  spreadsheet donation system to voluntarily inspire the Forbes 400, and other mega-rich groups and individuals, to voluntarily underwrite an investment in 21,000,000 Americans doing peaceful national service over a generation.

Proposes that this robust, peaceful national service program be used to inspire complementary national service programs by other nations; so that the world shifts the emphasis from relying on military solutions to vexing problems to peaceful development oriented solutions that national service armies can provide.  Requires each person, before induction, to be examined physically and mentally for classification for fitness to perform.

The Do-Gooders  platoons…

ASPC, AWSC Proposal

DCStaffMet9-16

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DC staff met 9-2016

Contact Title E-mail Company Phone Web Site Address
Ami Bera Leg Correspondent/Staff Assistant Shaefer.Bagwell@mail.house.gov House of Representative 202-225-5716 bera.house.gov 1535 Longworth House Office
James McGovern Legislative Asistant Russell.Halliday@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-6101 www.mcgovern.house.gov 438 Cannon HOB
Marcy Kaptur Legislative Director jenny.perrino@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-4146 2186 Rayburn Building
Tulsi Gabbard HillVets Fellow Daniel.snedden@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-4906 1609 Longworth House Office Building
Seth Moulton Policy Advisor margo.brown@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-8020 1408 Longworth Building
Chris Van Hollen Senior Legislative Assistant ken.cummings@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-5341 1707 Longworth H.O.B.
Krysten Sinema Leg Asst. Michael.Wong@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-9888 sinema.house.gov 1530 Longworth House Office Building
Raul Grijalva Leg director Kelsey.Mishkin@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-2435 http://grijalva.house.gov 1511 Longworth HOB
Xaviera Becerra Schedule/Education Emilio.Mendez@mail.house.gov House of Representatives 202-225-6235 1226 Longworth House Office Building
Louise Slaughter Legislative Assistant Jack.Spasiano@mail.house.gov House of Representatives  NY 28cd 585-697-0840 http://www.votelouise.com/ 2469 Rayburn HOB
Suzan DelBene Legislative Director ben.barasky@mail.house.gov House of Representatives (WA) 202-225-6311 delbene.house.gov 318 Cannon House Office Building
Scott Peters Chief of Staff Michelle.Dorothy@mail.house.gov House of Representatives Ca 202-225-0508 1122 Longworth House Office Building
Charles Rangel Pearson Fellow benjamin.garcia@mail.house.gov House of Representatives NY 202-225-4365 2354 Rayburn House Office Building
Adam Smith Legislative Assistant christy.hayek@mail.house.gov House of Representatives WA 202-225-8901 http://www.electadamsmith.com/Contact 2264 Rayburn HOB,
Jared Huffman Legislative Assistant Nicholas.Hromalik@mail.house.gov House of Representatives, CA 202-225-5161 1630 Longworth House Office Building
Chellie Pingree Legislative Assistant joe.marro@mail.house.gov House of Representatives, ME (202) 225-6116 www.pingree.house.gov 2162 Rayburn
Morgan Griffith Legislative Counsel kristin.seum@mail.house.gov House of Representatives, VA 202-225-3861 1108 Longworth House Office Building
Mike Thompson Leg Director Stephanie.Newman@mail.house.gov House of Represetnatives Leg Dir 202-225-3311 http://mikethompson.house.gov/Biography/index.asp 231 Cannon Office Building
Tulsi Gabbard Manager Front Desk Katherina.Deery@mail.house.gov House Representative Vt (202)225-4906 1609 Longworth Building
Bernie Sanders Leg Aide ian.rockwell@@sanders.senate.gov US Senate – Scheduler 202-224-5141 2233 Rayburn
Barbara Boxer Foreign Relations Senator US Senate Leg  Aide Boxer 202-224-3553 www.Boxer.senate.gov 112 Hart Building
Alan Lowenthal Legislative Assistant anne.nguyen@mail.house.gov Washington, DC Office 202-225-7924 www.lowenthal.house.gov 108 Cannon House Office Bldg
Tulsi Gabbard Manager Front Desk Daniel.Snedden@mail.house.gov House Representative Vt (202)225-4906 1609 Longworth Building

 

The American World Service Corps National Service  (AWSCNS) Congressional Proposal  opens up filled jobs, provides new jobs, trains and educates for the environmentally beneficial jobs and needs of the future, makes stronger friends and neighbors with enhanced civic IQs.

Over ten years ago, People’s Lobby started working on the AWSCNS Congressional Proposal with a unanimous endorsement from the 2006 California State Democratic Convention.

This Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) did not think that a decade later I’d still be pushing to enact this needed, overwhelmingly good, and cost effective piece of legislation.

The AWSCNS would ramp up over seven years by adding about 150,000 paid volunteers per year.  In the seventh year, one million volunteers would serve annually through already effective do-good organizations, such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat, Doctors Without Borders, Head Start, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Americans Friends Service Committee, TechnoServe, Heifer, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, State Conservation Corps, In-Need Schools, Hospitals Therapy Wards, Homes for the Elderly, etc.  After 20 years of one million serving annually, directly addressing needs, and building sustainability, Congress would consider the AWSCNS for sun-setting after its 27th year.

In 2009 Congress implemented the Ted Kennedy Serve America Act.  Nonetheless, even at its proposed unmet largest, the Kennedy Serve America Act is 1/4th the size of what is called for in the AWSCNS Proposal,  and, as we warned, its budget was whittled on soon after memories of Senator Ted Kennedy faded.

Could you set up a time to meet with the Senato/Congressman, Chief of Staff, Legislative Director, or appropriate senior staffer during the week of September 18th-24th in hopes of building additional support for the AWSCNS Proposal?

The AWSC National Service Proposal would stimulate and strengthen America’s ability to peacefully and economically solve problems.  With its proposed coming-of-age non-traditional funding mechanisms moved further along by Gates and Buffet pushing their Giving Pledge, enacting teh proposed AWSCNS  could cost effectively involve the richest .1% in voluntarily building worldwide sustainability.  A summary of some of these benefits is here.

For a PowerPoint overview of the essence of the AWSCNS Proposal, view the first 12 slides at this link.

When I discuss the details of the AWSCNS Proposal to large audiences, they overwhelmingly support it.  It would do the same among the constituent audiences of those visionary congresspersons who push, introduce, and support it.

Included in the AWSCNS Proposal is a call for other nations to deploy their own similar armies peacefully on the battlefields of need.  In 1989 People’s Lobby was instrumental in moving visionary Congresswoman Boxer to introduce HR 1807, calling for the creation of a US-USSR Peace Corps.  Recently, we have asked her to do it again before she retires, but her ride into the sunset may be too close.

Therefore, we’d like to see whether you would be interested in resurrecting this visionary piece of HR1807 legislation.  Imagine how much more beneficial Bear and Eagle relations would be today if 20,000+ Americans, Soviet Unioners, and Russians had served together by 2016. View 8 slides on the US-Russian Peace Corps here.

It is never too late to start something that could do a lot of good. Investing in volunteers in do-good groups in turbulent political and climate challenged environments often returns the most good, especially in communities with needs.

We look forward to meeting with you or appropriate DC staff in September.  Thanks.

Dwayne Hunn Ph.D.

People’s Lobby Executive Director

415-383-7880

Represented by Congressman Huffman, California’s 2nd

AWSC Proposal, Blog, Common Sense Opeds, Coverage

How to prepare for disasters

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Marin Independent Journal                             

MARIN VOICE                                September 23, 2005

Dwayne Hunn

Another Katrina will happen.  Another earthquake will.  With Mother Nature stuff happens, and you can’t always avoid it.  However, you can competently and humanely temper its aftermath.

Another Iraq and Vietnam may happen.  Another extremist act may.  With politics and policies, stuff happens.  However, you can avoid a lot of stupid policies from becoming bloody economic disasters.

Ø      How?  By making Americans and the world smarter.

Ø      How do we do that?  Give Americans a visionary program in which a significant number serve, share, understand, learn, and teach their young.  From that, America grows a super majority of smarter citizens.  That super majority then votes America away from stupid, costly mistakes that cost us dearly in blood and economy.

Ø      What is that vision?  It’s the citizen-initiated World Service Corps proposed in Congress.

If passed in Congress this year, the proposed laws would annually ramp up America’s best resource until by the sixth year one million Americans, or .6 of 1% of those aged 20 – 60-plus, would voluntarily serve in their choice of the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, OxFam, State Conservation Corps, etc.

Why would Americans volunteer to do the WSC?  Because Americans enjoy serving, like playing on great teams, and prefer building over wrecking.  In addition, the proposed legislation would offer simple, cost effective federal financial incentives to volunteers.

Upon completing service, WSC members would receive two years of community plus two years of state college tuition, equivalent educational loan pay off, or equivalent investment in Medical or IRA Accounts, which would be transferable to family relatives.  This updated mini GI Educational Bill of Rights gives the do-good governmental and non-governmental organizations the mix of enthusiastic, experienced, can-do Americans, aged 18 – 60+, who make the world safer and better.

In less dangerous and testing times, John Kennedy wanted the Peace Corps to put a million PCVs into the world.  Then, he felt, it would become a significant force bettering the world and America.  Today, one ofAmerica’s best and most cost effective programs has only about 177,000 returning Peace Corps volunteers.  The World Service Corps proposals legislate a million of our most cost effective resources into dealing with and learning from world and domestic problems.  It does so at a total (stipend plus incentives) annual cost less than 1/10th what it costs to maintain each of our military personnel, which is soaring past $500,000 each when supplemental and off-budget costs are added.  What a huge, long run cost and blood savings bargain.

Sure, a million WSC members physically improve the world.  They do so by working shoulder-to-shoulder with the world that wants to idolize them.  Perhaps more importantly, they enlighten the world’s superpower, whose steps can improve or destroy chunks of the world, by directly exposing Americans to global village needs.

Only about 15% of Americans take out passports.  Many of them have corporate or Club Med world experiences.  The WSC exposes more Americans to the classroom of world needs, so that their voting decisions are based on real life experiences, rather than on forgettable TV designed for couch potatoes.

The WSC raises America’s political and policymaking IQ.  That, then, keeps American voters from stumbling into shortsighted, costly, or bloody policies that we could avoid by pursuing visionary, practical, cost-effective policies.

Imagine, if the WSC had been running for years.  Its incentives would have inspired more states to start Conservation Corps.  The day Katrina struck thousands of those new and expanded state Conservation Corps, plus thousands of Red Cross, Americorps, Habitat, Doctors Sans Borders, International Rescue Committee, etc., volunteers would have been moving into Mississippi and Louisiana, with or without a Federal Emergency Management Agency passport.

We need peaceful, productive Special Forces to handle today’s special needs, as well as to reduce terrorist recruitment.

The World Service Corps www.worldservicecorps.us needs your local and national support.  Before the next hurricane or earthquake, before the next terrorist act, citizens need to enlighten local, state, and federal politicians, so they will enact the WSC legislation to send a million can-do Americans into our and the world’s classroom of needs.

 

Dwayne Hunn of Mill Valley is executive director of People’s Lobby and sponsor of the World Service Corps proposals.  He served in the Peace Corps.

AWSC, Coverage

An army of volunteers for peace

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Thursday, January 23, 2003

Marin Independent Journal – Marin Voice

Dwayne Hunn

Dwayne Hunn, IJ

Osama, Saddam and their followers are bad actors and will get what they deserve, probably mostly from our superb military.

In the meantime, it would be healthy to hear politicians, opinion leaders and parties lay out a  long-term solution to the terror these actors breed, before we get too deeply entwined in war’s bloody human and financial costs.  The solution lies in a Sargent’s quote:

If the Pentagon’s map is more urgent, the Peace Corp’s is, perhaps, in the long run the most important… What happens in India, Africa, and South America — whether the nations where the Peace Corps works succeed or not — may well determine the balance of peace.

In the 60’s and 70’s then New York Senator Jacob Javits proposed a peace army of a million young men. Labor leaders advocated an overseas service corps of 100,000. The Peace Corps’ first Deputy Director, Warren Wiggins, said a Peace Corps of 30,000 — 100,000 was needed.

The Peace Corps mean budget from 1965-69 was $108,000,000, with its mean number of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in the field numbering 13,947 with a mean cost per volunteer of $7,743.

On the other hand, for that same period the Vietnam War Budget was $16,260,000,000. The mean number of soldiers we kept in Viet Nam was 413,300. The MEAN cost per soldier was $39,370.

If just ten percent of the Vietnam War budget, $1,626,000,000, had been put into the Peace Corps budget to get Americans to work “the toughest job you’ll ever love that REALLY does good,” then an additional 209,996 mean Peace Corps volunteers could have served during that period.

Imagine if we had continued inspiring 55,000 American volunteers each year to serve in countries where clean water doesn’t run easily, chalk boards are luxuries, people house themselves in mud, clay and cow dung padded walls, education is treasured, health and food is too often wanting.

Instead, since its 1961 inception only slightly over 150,000 PCVs have served in over 130 nations.

Had our Army of over two million PCVs already served in the field, do you think international newspapers would be lambasting America on its pages?  Would readers buy it? Would Osama bin Laden and his cells have risen in such a world?

Maybe.  But having been a Peace Corps volunteer as well as a Global Village Habitat for Humanity homebuilder working near the struggling masses, I think not. Even most ivory towered policy wonks would probably agree.

Yet, where on the political hustings, on the forums provided for perceived leaders, do you hear even some of them planting visions of common sense, of marshalling good-doers to address the sufferings of the world.

The lines drawn between long suffering masses and terrorists and comfortable, arrogant Americans are short, and getting shorter.

The line eraser is not a stealth bomber or more technically armed Special Forces.  The eraser cleans when you build what an American Peace Army does – builds relationships, schools, sanitation systems, small farms and businesses.

Sarge Shriver was right, in the long run the Peace Corps map of the world is more important.  Today’s world reminds us how much more his words needed heeding.

Edwin Markham was one of John Kennedy’s favorite poets.  One of Kennedy’s favorite Markham poems was:

Why build these cities beautiful,

If man unbuilded goes.

In vain we build the world,

Unless the builder also grows.

Some brother-in-laws think alike.  Their vision of a vastly expanded Peace Corps is what today’s unbuilded global village needs.  Building a life for one’s loved ones forges a sense of pride, and that builds villages and cities beautiful.

It’s what two visionary leaders preached.  It’s what isn’t pushed enough today.

 

Mill Valley resident, Dwayne Hunn, is field director for the National Initiative for Democracy Campaign, a proposed process to empower all Americans with law making capabilities. Hunn served in the Peace Corps Mumbai, India.