US Public Service Academy

On Friday, April 25, I attended a NCCC symposium in Annapolis, Maryland. One of the speakers was Chris Myers Asch, a Teach for America alum who is trying to start the U.S. Public Service Academy.

As Asch explained it, the U.S. Public Service Academy would be a civilian counterpart to the existing five national military academies. It would provide free undergraduate instruction to 5,100 students and, in return, these students would be required to serve five years in public institutions like health care, law enforcement, education, emergency management, and other fields.

A host of Senators, Representatives, and other political figures are already on board.

I would write more about it, but the couple sitting across from me in the Sebring Library are having a bitter argument about marriage infidelity. Check out the website at http://www.uspublicserviceacademy.org

Let me know what you think.

Extavagent Birthday Parties?

Here's a link to a CNN.com article about the rising trend of parent's throwing over-the-top [expensive] birthday parties for their young children. We're talking thousand-dollar custom cakes, goody bags with more than most kids receive for Christmas, and the whatnot (use your imagination).

From what I've read previously, it seems to me that these extravagant parties are rooted in the desire in so many American adults to 'one-up' everyone else. Parents want to throw their own child a crazy-expensive party to be more over-the-top than the last kid's party.

Oddly enough, there has a been a study or two done that shows many American adults base their perception of their own happiness on how their house/belongings/income/parties compare to those of their peers. In my opinion, a rather unsettling idea and probably much of the reason most Americans today overextend themselves and end up swimming in credit card debt.

I digress.

I recall one of my later childhood birthday parties (by later I mean at the age when playing with GI Joe was still appropriate), I gathered a handful of friends in my basement and had a quite extensive, all-out GI Joe war for hours on end, long into the night. I hope that one day my child(ren) will celebrate their birthdays in a similar fashion.

Sebring, Florida

The AmeriCorps is shipping me off to Sebring, Florida, on April 26. If you plan on being in south-central Florida during May and June, look me up.

Harell and Newsweek

Here's a photo of Kiel on the Border Wall March used in an online Newsweek article.

Border Fence Article

Here's a link to an article in Time regarding the building of the border fence. It describes how certain legal waivers are now being employed in order that officials can bypass certain laws to erect portions of the fence with fewer hurdles.

One quote at the end of the article I found odd:

"[Homeland Security Secretary Michael] Chertoff has said the fence is good for the environment because immigrants degrade the land with trash and human waste when they sneak illegally into the country."