[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 12, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H238-H239]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1315
                   WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE IS IMPORTANT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Culberson). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 23, 2002, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to make some comments 
today on how everybody in America probably should do a little more in 
helping their fellow man in contributing some community service, either 
at the community or national level.
  I was this past week deciding on the essay topic that I ask seniors 
to write to apply for what I have called the LeGrand Smith Scholarship. 
It is named after my dad. I simply take all of the pay increases that I 
have had since I first ran in the Michigan Senate back in 1983; I have 
put these pay increases into an irrevocable trust for scholarships for 
graduating seniors. It is designed to reward and acknowledge those 
individuals in high school that are not only academically capable but 
also are willing to contribute to others in community service or in 
leadership positions in high school. Part of that decision in scoring 
of the committee that decides who the winners are is

[[Page H239]]

grading an essay on an essay topic. The committee was just trying to 
decide, and we had it narrowed down to two topics, why patriotism is 
important in America or why helping others and working in some 
community service or national service is important. We decided on the 
latter. Part of it was maybe because the President in his State of the 
Union address suggested that we have a Freedom Corps where every 
individual in America during their lifetime contribute 2 years of 
community or national service.
  I would like to suggest, Mr. Speaker, that a lot of individuals could 
gain significantly by serving in a community and national service 
program. I would envision the possibility of taking every senior when 
they graduate from high school and say that here is an opportunity for 
you to go maybe in 6 weeks of basic training and then serve in 
community service. In 1990 we passed a bill in Congress signed by the 
President, the community and national service legislation, that lays 
out 20 or 30 different types of community and national service. I 
envision a system where you could expand that to serve in your local 
communities, in your local hospitals. Certainly there is a tremendous 
need now for individuals for service at the national level in many 
aspects. A national service bill for high school students would have 
maybe the same kind of 6 weeks of basic training that many of us had in 
earlier years in boot camp.
  When I went into the Air Force, into boot camp, I thought I had a lot 
of discipline, self-discipline. As it turned out, getting up at 5 
o'clock in the morning and going out and doing aggressive exercises and 
then making a very neat bed and keeping your clothes clean and your 
shoes shined, plus the patriotism that we learned in terms of working 
together, in terms of saluting the flag.
  But one thing that all of us that served in that basic training also 
learned in associating with individuals from all kinds of backgrounds, 
that the individual that had a different religious faith, that the 
individual that was yellow, black, tan or a different color ended up 
being just as qualified in their intelligence, just as qualified in 
their leadership ability, and it gave me a new perspective and also at 
the same time I think opened new vistas of opportunities of the 
responsibility of all of us to serve.
  When the President suggested a national service program, I wonder how 
many of us will respond. I think the response should be very 
aggressive. But I also think it should be considered that every 
graduating high school senior come into some kind of a program where 
they would go through 6 weeks of kind of basic training. And maybe with 
what happened September 11, it is especially important, because we have 
now learned that those individuals in the Taliban were trained to hate 
and hate Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, in combination with patriotism, I think community and 
national service is vital for everyone. I encourage all to participate.

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