Obama challenges nation to give back

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By Christina Bellantoni

Sen. Barack Obama outlined Wednesday the national-service expansion that his White House would push and fund, saying that the nation must remember that "history calls us" to give back.

The senator from Illinois detailed a $3.5 billion plan to boost participation in the military, AmeriCorps, foreign service and community work to give Americans a sense of having a stake in improving the nation.

"Loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July," said the presumptive Democratic nominee, who was speaking at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. "Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger."

Mr. Obama laid out sweeping promises to expand service programs, something he said would be a "central cause of my presidency."

"We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we will direct that service to our most pressing national challenges," he said.

Mr. Obama said the Bush administration failed to ask citizens for their help in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when Americans were eager to do anything for their country.

"We were ready to ... answer a new call for our country. The call never came," he said, evoking a common line of Democrats.

"Instead of a call to service, we were asked to shop," he said. "Instead of a call for shared sacrifice, we saw tax cuts go to the wealthiest Americans in a time of war for the very first time in our history."

As a result, he said, the nation has "lost precious time" under the threat of global warming, a dwindling reputation abroad and troops deployed on multiple tours.

"Make no mistake: Our destiny as Americans is tied up with one another.

"We need your service. I'm not going to tell you what your role should be; that's for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part, ask you to stand up, ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history's course."

He said his experience as a community organizer in Chicago was personally meaningful.

"Through service, I found a community that embraced me, citizenship that was meaningful, the direction I'd been seeking. ... I discovered how my own improbable story fit into the larger American story," he said.

His service plan would:

cExpand the network of local, state and national service programs known as AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 slots and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 with the goal of strengthening diplomacy. The larger AmeriCorps would aim to "meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world."

cExtend service jobs and opportunities to retirees, veterans and people without college degrees, getting them involved in work such as cleaning polluted areas and weatherizing homes to "gain skills in a growing industry."

cComplete expansion of the armed forces to increase ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines and "call on a new generation of Americans to join our military."

cMake sure students from high school to college have opportunities to contribute so they could graduate with as many as 17 weeks of service. Middle school and high school students would be asked to perform 50 hours per year; college students, 100 hours per year.

cExpand USA Freedom Corps using an online social network system similar to what his campaign created.

Mr. Obama will speak Thursday at a children's museum in Fargo, N.D., and his family will join him in Montana for the holiday. His daughter, Malia, turns 10 Friday. She celebrated her ninth birthday in Iowa last year.