PART EIGHT, 2024 Campaign Platform
The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.
PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.
PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.
PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.
PART FIVE Transform the Executive Branch of Government and cut spending
PART SIX Transform the Congress and Cut Spending
PART SEVEN Terms and Term Limits
Part EIGHT Universal Service for all
There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year. Too late, we needed it yesterday!
While there are ten crises listed in PART ONE, solutions to all of them are actually contained in eight essays; PART THREE has both education and race relations and PARTS FIVE and SIX cover cutting spending in great detail. So, PART EIGHT is the final essay in the series to transform America as a platform for the 2024 campaign.
PART EIGHT: UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA
BACKGROUND, THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON SERVICE:
Since the dissolution of the military draft in 1973 there have been sporadic conversations about a compulsory national service program for all young adults. As part of the FY 2017 Defense Authorization Act, President Trump and the Congress established a National Commission on Military, National and Public Service. Their specific mission was to, “accomplish two things: Conduct a review of the military selective service process and consider methods to increase participation in military, national and public service in order to address national security and other public service needs of the nation. “
After two and a half years of extensive public engagement, the Commission issued its final report in March 2020, containing its findings and recommendations which include:
ONE, requiring women to register with the Selective Service System at age 18.
TWO, increasing military outreach, particularly to those areas with a low-propensity to join the armed forces.
THREE, expand educational opportunities during military service and develop strategies to recruit and retain in high-demand occupations.
FOUR, expand civic educational programs in schools.
FIVE, significantly increase non-military service opportunities in order to create, “an expectation of service” by 2031.
The Commission’s report, entitled, “Inspire to Serve”, explains a vision that, “…. every individual will be exposed to voluntary service opportunities throughout their lifetime, beginning with young people….”. They also repeatedly commented on the need to create an American culture of service by 2031. What was most important about their report was what they did not say:
ONE, they completely failed to recognize the elephant in the room, that is the obvious question, do we need compulsory national service for everyone 18-years old?
TWO, while they frequently emphasized the importance of creating a national culture of service, they provided zero insights into how that was going to be possible.
ABOUT “CULTURE”:
There is a culture, either positive or negative embedded in every organization, large and small, and it is a powerful and pervasive force in every one of them.
You cannot imprint a new culture on an organization with a speech, memo, email or the words in a Commission report. It is, in and of itself, a huge undertaking and it may take years for it to take hold.
The absolute best way to create the Commission’s culture of service is to make it a centerpiece of a compulsory service program wherein 99 + % of all young adults can be brought into it through daily discussions and actions over a protracted period of time. In due course, 99 + % of the U.S. population will have been subjected to an identical process. “Indoctrination” is not a bad word when used in a positive way. Indoctrination during compulsory service is how a “culture of service” can become part of America’s fabric.
The final Commission’s hearings were held by the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11, 2021, where their recommendations appeared to be well received by Senators of both parties. To my knowledge, nothing has happened.
THIS PROPOSAL IS A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR United Service for America, U.S.A.:
A concept of operations is a good place to begin a long-range strategic planning process. Its purpose is to tell the story by first defining the problem to be solved, providing a vision of the end-state, that is, what we believe can be accomplished, and finally, filling in some of the blanks by describing the who, what, when, where, why and how of the concept. When completed the concept of operations can become a public affairs tool, a sales pitch and/or a piece of legislation.
BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING BY DEFINING THE PROBLEM:
Begin with these two questions: Are there any identifiable problems that need to be solved? Yes. Is there an existing program that addresses these problems? No. Some wise person once said, “If you cannot define the problem, there is no solution.” So, here are…….
SIX PROBLEM AREAS:
These six youth-related issues will continue to plague this nation far into the future unless bold steps are taken now.
ONE, gangs: The FBI reports, “there are some 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs with about 1.4 million members criminally active in the U.S. today. Youth gangs are the training ground for a life of crime.”
The average number of members per gang is reportedly 42. About half of all homicides in the U.S. are gang-related. The Justice Department reports that, “The average age of gang members arrested in the U.S. is 17 or 18.” This information, in and of itself, is sufficient justification for a mandatory youth program in America. We need to take these young adults off the streets and introduce them to a different way of life.
TWO, drop-outs and illiteracy: On average 7,000 students drop out every school day; 90% of them end up on welfare. Nationally, 68% of all males in prison do not have a high school diploma.
An education system in which more than half of students entering 9th grade either drop out or graduate incapable of further education or satisfactorily performing in the private sector or the military is unsatisfactory. Increasing proficiency and thereby providing a greater chance for a successful future can be a part of a universal service program.
THREE, youth obesity: It’s is a common, serious and costly disease. From 2000 to 2020 obesity in the U.S. population increased from about 30% to 45% while severe obesity doubled. Half of the obesity problem is with adolescents aged 12-19 years. Mandatory participation in daily exercise and counseling on healthy habits will help to establish a healthier future America.
FOUR, culture: It’s a powerful and pervasive force in every organization; it is an organization’s personality. Is it caring, hateful, fast, energetic, visionary, risk-taking, vengeful? America is drowning in a culture of hate and blame. A year of character development can change young adults and henceforth, transform America.
FIVE, race: There is no way to explicitly measure the state of race relations in the United States, but they are at least not what they should be. Fact: babies are not born bigoted, disrespecting or hateful. While growing up they learn it at home, in school, on the playground and on the street. A universal service program’s character development along with integrated team work every day will enhance the understanding and cooperation among all races represented. The U.S. military has successfully practiced this solution for decades.
SIX, welfare: It is a fact that the more education one completes, the less likely they are to be on welfare. About 32 million households, or 27.1%, benefit from one or more of the following: Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized lunches, public housing, unemployment and some sort of direct cash assistance. Universal Service for America will provide young men and women the opportunity to be better prepared to hold good jobs and stay off welfare.
Given that background, the question before us is, should we have Universal Service for America?
In consideration of these six problem areas (gangs, drop-outs, obesity, culture, race and welfare), the better question is, are these problems in the process of being solved with or by other national programs? The answer is an unequivocable NO. Universal Service for America, or as it may become known as, the U.S.A. Program, can be a transformational undertaking and is therefore worth the effort to make it happen. It can become a “rite of passage” for 99 + % of Americans.
What are the existing national service organizations? There are national service organizations in existence, such as AmeriCorps, Youth Build, Senior Corps and the Peace Corps. What they have in common is that they are relatively small in size and they are 100% voluntary. One of the most enduring government youth programs has been Job Corps, a free residential education and job training program for young adults, aged 16-24, run by the Department of Labor. Let me provide some revelations about Job Corps in order to make a couple important points.
From July 2016 to June 2017, Job Corps reported 3,673 safety and security incidents among the 79,000 enrollees (drugs, assault, alcohol, security breach, serious injury) according to the General Accounting Office analysis. Other headlines over the years include, “Job Corps is one of the most wasteful, least effective programs in the federal government; Congress spends billions on ineffective job-training programs; job Corps, a recipe for waste, fraud and failure; The Federal Job Corps training program is a flop; the government has taken on a role for which it was never intended, pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into a broken web of job training.”
CONCLUSIONS TO THIS POINT:
ONE: There are serious endemic youth-related problems that need to be solved.
TWO: With a historical success rate of zero, the U.S. government should not build and/or run the program.
HOW SHOULD THE U.S.A. PROGRAM BE ORGANIZED AND FUNDED?
To avoid the pit-falls of the decades-old Job Corps program, Universal Service for America should be organized as a non-profit 501-C3 national non-governmental organization (NGO). An NGO is a non-profit, citizen-based undertaking that functions independently of the government. NGOs are organized on local, national and international levels to serve specific social or political purposes. Despite their independence from the government, many NGOs receive funding from local, state, and federal governments.
There are about 1.5 million NGOs operating in the U.S. Widely known examples are Doctors Without Borders and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). The federal government should fund salaries, housing, meals, transportation and medical services for the U.S.A. Program.
OPERATIONAL UNDERPINNINGS:
For the U.S.A. Program to be successful it must be based on and encompass, as a minimum, the following nineteen resolutions:
ONE, at age 17 all U.S. citizens and non-naturalized immigrants must register for Universal Service for America with the existing Selective Service System. Congress should amend the Selective Service System Act with two changes:
Amend the enrollment age from 18 to 17. This will provide Universal Service for America staff with a valid database of potential participants a year in advance of their reporting for duty at age 18.
Currently the law says that, “Failure to register with the Selective Service is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or 5 years imprisonment.”
The law should be amended to read: All American citizens must register with the Selective Service within 30 days after their 17th birthday. Immigrants residing in the United States who are 17 through 25 years of age must registerwithin 30 days of arrival in the U.S. Those who have not done so by their 18th birthday are subject to imprisonment for five years. If, after one year in prison, they register with the Selective Service and report to the next available Universal Service for America program, the remainder of the 5-year sentence will be forgiven.
TWO, attendance is mandatory for all high school graduates who are 18 years old plus all 18-year-old non-graduates. Exceptions include: women who are pregnant or have a child; individuals who are physically or mentally impaired; and those who join the military immediately after high school graduation. Individuals who are head-of-households may apply for an exemption
THREE, Universal Service for America will be 12-months in duration beginning June of each year. This needs some discussion:
Unlike AmeriCorps, Youth Build and Job Corps that may have up to 75,000 enrollees, Universal Service for America will have about four million on a continuous basis. That is almost twice the size of the entire U.S. military, active duty, Guard and Reserve combined.
Compulsory service for all 18-year-old Americans and immigrants will be an enormous undertaking. For a 2-year program, following the first-year enrollment of 4 million people, all succeeding years would have about 8 million continuously in residence. For example, a small city, population 50,000, would have about 1,600 participants in residence at all times. Conclusion, a 2-year program is probably too large to run efficiently and effectively.
If it is a 12-month program, that begs the question: What impact will it have on all of our colleges and universities which will, the first year of the program, be without an entire incoming freshman class? There are three possible solutions to this problem:
The first is exempt compulsory service for all high school graduates who will be enrolled as full-time college students by the fall semester after high school graduation. There are enormous downsides to this alternative: It defeats the overall intent and purpose of the program, which is to create a culture of service for all Americans; many students have no business going to college, but may use college enrollment simply as a way to dodge the compulsory service; and it would create an unhealthy division in America for all times, meaning those who did and those who didn’t “serve”. It will defeat the advantages resulting from “rite of passage”
A second alternative is to require all college students to attend at least two, and perhaps three or four summer sessions of Universal Service for America; the first immediately following high school graduation. There are potential downsides for this alternative: Every June there will be (in round numbers) about 4 million new candidates for Universal Service for America; about 2.5 million will be college bound in September and 1.5 million will begin their full year of service.
If the college students are to complete their service commitment by attending only summer sessions, after the first year of the service program there will be an additional surge of 2.5 million (those having just finished one year of college), 6.5 million total for the second summer; then a summer surge to 8 million the 3rd June and to 10.5 million for the 4th June and 10.5 million every summer thereafter.
The logistics associated with those summer surge numbers would be staggering to begin with and creating these summer surges will likely negatively impact the overall quality of the program.
The third, and probably the best, alternative is for the federal government to create a one-time bailout fund for colleges and universities to offset the no-freshman-class situation that will occur the first, and only, year of Universal Service for America.
Continuing with the program’s operational underpinnings:
FOUR, after 6 months in the program, anyone who is qualified to do so may enlist in the U.S. military.
FIVE, all attendees will be provided with a photo identification card with personal description information, a Universal Service for America ID number and expiration date. The ID will enable free local public transportation while in the program. In conjunction with the Selective Service, each states’ DMV facilities will produce and issue the ID cards.
SIX, everyone will be stationed at a location removed from their home of record and will not be stationed with others from their home community.
SEVEN, men and women participants will not cohabitate.
EIGHT, the majority will be stationed in urban areas.
NINE, every full-time attendee will be authorized vacation days over religious holidays and during July or August.
TEN, lodging, meals, uniforms, transportation and medical care will be provided. Each attendee will receive a stipend of $500 per month.
ELEVEN, uniforms will consist of dark blue pants/shorts, white shirts and a red hat. Uniforms will include a name tag, a Universal Service for America logo, which will include the American flag.
TWELVE, everyone will participate in physical training five days per week.
THIRTEEN, everyone will abide by the Universal Service for America Code of Conduct.
FOURTEEN, no one in the program is exempt from any local, state or federal laws. Universal Service for America will not provide legal counsel to attendees when apprehended for violations of the law.
FIFTEEN, transgender individuals will abide by local, state and federal rules in force for where they reside during their term of service.
SIXTEEN, mandatory unannounced drug testing will be the norm.
SEVENTEEN, all will participate in leader training by being team leaders or higher as they move through the program.
EIGHTEEN, this should be a no-frills experience for each participant consisting of long workdays, community service on the weekends, and basic accommodations.
NINETEEN, there will be two Universal Service for America websites: One to keep the general public apprised of every aspect of the program; and the second will be an internal site available to leaders and staff. Innovation has been the lifeblood of this nation since its inception; best-practices will be templated and shared. Additionally, the internal site can be used to clarify program policies and procedures.
PARTICIPATION NUMBERS for a 12-month, all-18-year-old program:
Using 2020 data, it is possible to forecast the approximate number of participants if Universal Service for America could begin operations within the next few years; 3.7 million 18-year-old high school graduates, plus 300,000 18-year-old non-graduates and some, yet to be determined, number of 18-year-old non-citizens living in the U.S.
A TYPICAL U.S.A. PROGRAM DAY:
The intent of the schedule is to address the problems associated with gangs, dropouts, illiteracy, obesity, culture, race relations and welfare. And most importantly, to build a culture of service to society. The days will be tailored to individual needs with the objective of transforming lives and thereby giving them a greater chance at a successful life.
MORNING SCHEDULE:
Begin the day with mandatory physical training.
Then, gather in a classroom setting, in groups of about 25, with a volunteer instructor, and discuss elements of character development. Values are key drivers in our lives. Our values motivate us, determine what we strive to become in both life and in the work place, determine how well we will fit into an organization. Values are drivers in our decision making and set out moral compass. Character Development is value development; here are the building blocks:
Five days per week, following breakfast, participants will assemble, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then participate in a character development seminar. The Character Curriculum will be, ACCOUNTABILITY, CITIZENSHIP, COMMITMENT, COMPASSION, COURAGE OF CONVICTIONS, COURTESY, CONFIDENCE, HEALTHY HABITS, HONESTY, HONOR, HUMILITY, INTEGRITY, JUDGMENT, LEADERSHIP, MORALITY, PERSEVERANCE, PUNCTUALITY, RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, SELF-RESPECT, SELFLESS SERVICE, SPORTSMANSHIP AND TRUST.
Just imagine the impact this can have with four million young adults having a substantive discussion about one of the subjects in the Character Curriculum five days a week and then adjourning to live/be/do/demonstrate those values on a daily basis. It is a powerful initiative and will displace our current culture of hate and blame.
For the remainder of the morning, based on arrangements with local schools, those who have not graduated from high school, could, attend virtual classes and gain credits towards receiving a high school diploma.
Through arrangements with local Community Colleges, those participants interested in some type of technical training could take morning classes.
Those seriously deficient in reading, writing and math skills could attend remedial morning classes.
Have an “open” period each morning for guest speakers, leadership training, lessons on U.S. history and civics; whatever subjects enhance the overall program.
AFTERNOON SCHEDULE:
Generally, this will be the time for community service. There are so many ways to help out and become visible to the public in positive ways, for example:
Clean parks and playgrounds, volunteer at a museum, assist at a walk-a-thon or community run, deliver food to the homebound, work at a food bank, take care of animals at a shelter, tutor students who have fallen behind in their studies, walk kids home from school, donate blood, help kids with their homework, offer free music lessons, coach a youth sports team, teach adults internet skills, teach CPR, assist immigrants with conversational English, chaperone a field trip, help out at a community center, volunteer as a lifeguard, be a crossing guard, do social media for a local nonprofit, help set up a community event, organize a clothing drive, adopt a highway and clean it, participate in musical performances at nursing homes, deliver groceries to the elderly, write letters for a senior citizen, lead an exercise program, sponsor an animal at the zoo, work for a charity like Habitat for Humanity, volunteer at a fire station, teach self-defense, paint over graffiti, work with special-needs kids; there is no end to this list.
GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES FOR U.S.A.:
For this Non-Governmental Organization, the federal government will be responsible for financing the bulk of operational costs, including salaries, housing, food, transportation and medical services.
The states will use their Division of Motor Vehicles facilities to produce and issue Universal Service for America ID cards for each 17-year-old as they register with the Selective Service.
Local officials will provide free-of-charge public transportation. They will also become points of contact for program officials to coordinate the use of participants to fulfill community service tasks.
UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA LEADERS IN THE FIELD:
There is and always will be a perfect source of men and women to become qualified leaders and staff for the program. Annually the Defense Department retires thousands of men and women who have just finished 20-30 years of service, are looking for a second career and all have four things in common. One, they are proven leaders. two, they have years of experience teaching and training. Three, they understand standards and have spent two or three decades living up to them. Four, and perhaps most importantly, they have served in a totally integrated inter-racial environment with an overarching value base of accountability, respect and trust. What more could one ask for in a person to lead and mentor these young adults?
OPERATIONAL LOCATIONS:
It will not be practical to run the program with individual participants scattered across sparsely populated rural areas. This will, by necessity, be a program where they are housed and operate in urban areas with population densities of at least 50,000. The total U.S. population living in areas with at least 50,000 density is about 250 million. Doing the math, there are about 5,000 urban segments, each with a population of about 50,000. To accommodate all 4 million participants June through the following May would require housing nearly 800 participants per 50,000-population segment. A city of 200,000 would need to house 3,200 (800 x 4) etc. across the U.S. urban landscape.
CONCLUSIONS:
Universal Service is a missing link in America and desperately needed at this point in our history.
This program will be expensive but the resulting transformation will make it worthwhile.
BOTTOM LINE:
Goodness has been a hallmark of our nation, the greatest on earth. But factors are currently in-play that seriously challenge that goodness today. There needs to be a time and place when all Americans can contemplate goodness and thereby plan to live a more fulfilling and productive life by being all they can be. That time is now and that place is as an 18-year-old participant in Universal Service for America. Goodness doesn’t just happen, we can and must make it happen.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
There is an additional 15 pages of information in the book FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA that deal with planning, phasing and operations of the U.S.A. Program.
If you know someone running for national office right now, please send them a copy of this Campaign Platform proposal. Thank you. And thanks to those of you who stayed with me through the solutions to these ten U.S. crises. We-the-people can do this and transform America.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com