[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 28 (Thursday, March 10, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E413]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PEACE CORPS: A MODEL FOR HOPE

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                          HON. JAMES A. LEACH

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 10, 2005

  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to recognize 
that last week was National Peace Corps Week and to applaud the 
thousands of Americans who have represented the U.S. since 1961 in the 
Peace Corps in 138 countries. Emblematic of the idealism of America are 
the 15 volunteers from my district in Southeast Iowa who are currently 
serving on four continents, in desert villages, mountain towns and city 
centers from Ukraine to Panama and Morocco.
  A Peace Corps volunteer is charged with three missions: the first is 
to help the people of host countries in meeting their need for trained 
professionals; the second is to help promote understanding of America 
around the world; and the third is to help expand American 
understanding of other peoples and countries.
  Thus, the job of the Peace Corps volunteer is not over when their 
assignment is completed. Volunteers maintain a duty to share their 
grasp of the people, the language and the culture of the countries in 
which they served.
  Not long ago, in a speech at Yale University, the first Peace Corps 
Director, Sargent Shriver, declared that he wanted to add a fourth 
goal: to ``bind all human beings together in a common cause to assure 
peace and survival for all.''
  No mission is more altruistic; nor more consequential. Geopolitical 
realists might consider such majesty of purpose to be naive. Actually, 
there is no rational alternative in a world where history has known few 
generations unaffected by the strife of war; where the creation of 
weapons of mass destruction has increased the vulnerability of the 
human race. As Einstein noted, splitting the atom has changed 
everything except our way of thinking. It is the capacity to think 
that, at its best, characterizes mankind, but, at its least impressive, 
has yet to be harnessed in such a way as to give confidence that modern 
man can live with modern technology.
  It is in the context of concern for the common fate of all mankind 
the Peace Corps stands out as the singular institution in American 
society that provides a model for hope and a cause for optimism.

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