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For Which We Serve
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12114 |
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BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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3 / 1994 |
1,966 Words |
| Author
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Fred Friedman
Fred Friedman writes frequently for Public Interest and Crisis
magazines. |
A CITY YEAR
On the Streets and in the Neighborhoods
with Twelve Community Service Volunteers
Suzanne Goldsmith
New York: New Press, 1992
278 pp., $22.95
In 1768, Edmund Burke, in a famous address to Parliament, spoke of the importance of "the little platoons of society," the churches, guilds, and other communal institutions that brought a sense of order and stability to daily life. Burke believed that in a nation racked by sharp class distinctions and entering a period of rapid and chaotic change, the one way to ensure a sense of national purpose and cohesion was to insist that all citizens engage in some service to society, in particular, helping the less fortunate. Burke felt that the strength and success of a democratic polity depended, in part, on the active participation of its citizens in civic life.
In America, the idea of voluntary service is deeply embedded in our history. Before the advent of the welfare state, most of the nation's social services were provided by the voluntary and private sectors. Citizen volunteers provided police, fire, and sanitation protection, and private groups successfully administered health and educational services. Our libraries and postal system were founded by that epitome of the entrepreneurial and voluntary spirit, Benjamin Franklin.
During the Progressive Era, voluntary social-service agencies run by the likes of Jane Addams ministered to the needs of urban immigrants who faced the difficulties of adjusting to life in a new land. When the nation found itself mired in the Depression, the federal government, for the first time, put citizens to work in service to the nation. The Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration took thousands of young men who had no other prospects and put them to work repairing bridges, planting trees, paving roads, and doing other important tasks.
These New Deal programs changed the social and physical infrastructure of America in many positive ways. They also gave many who despaired of their future a sense of hope, honor, and purpose.
President Kennedy, in his inaugural address, exhorted his fellow citizens once again to national service, which he called "the highest form of citizenship." The Peace Corps transplanted
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