okay um yeah one year public service for everybody
is that that was it right
right uh
who wants to start this one
i don't know i've been i've been sitting here thinking here because it was you know took a couple tries before i found somebody well you know i'm like i'm not really sure what i think about this um
uh i mean the first thing is the oh if it's going to be mandatory it's got to be mandatory i mean everybody not just like you know poor people and all that you know but
right right
you know senators' sons and all that stuff too i mean everybody's got to do it um
i don't know it'd probably be it'd probably be good i just don't know if you know i was eighteen or whatever i'd want to be stuck doing it for a year or whatever
i'm not sure i want an eighteen year old to make that kind of decision uh i mean uh that that doesn't sound right
um i guess i see overall beneficial if if we're going from that point of view
uh-huh
um i you know in the past i don't know i don't know how old you are but when i was uh in high school was uh beginning of Vietnam and so forth and many of my peers were being drafted
uh-huh
and i could see that many of them had conscientious objections to war or whatever
but i i felt strongly then that even if they didn't feel like they could kill someone or go into a military situation that they could help the country in other ways
be it cleaning out uh lots in in their neighborhood or whatever kind of community or public service might be available
uh-huh
and i guess i see that as as not so much a a demand but but a privilege it's it's kind of uh uh
yeah is um
it's something it's it's since we live here and we all benefit rich poor or in between uh there are benefits even for those who have it the hardest i just see that as maybe a good idea i wouldn't mind doing it at forty four
uh-huh
uh and i find ways to to turn some of that back to to others uh and i i guess i i can't see that as being something to really object to
well i guess it's gonna depend on how i mean if if you're talking about any if you're talking about something that's like a full time
you know one year full time you know this is what you do you know you're going to go and and fill pot holes and you know and you know all that stuff i mean
i you know i don't know
i could see a a full a run a gamut of different kinds of opportunities things that need to be done that would that could be done in an hour or two
uh-huh
uh-huh
uh a day or several hours of the week like a half of a day on Saturday or something like that in addition to what one does
uh-huh
uh besides that i i can't imagine what kind of uh
uh bureaucracies we'd get into and expense having it be full time oh you're going to go to this camp and you're going to you know like um
back in the Depression the CCC the the construction corps that went out and did things that was great it was needed it gave folks some jobs and we got some great public works out of it but
yeah
um i don't see that as being necessary now i can see it being done uh on a regular schedule
uh-huh
uh everybody has to put in so many hours of uh public service in a given time perhaps
uh-huh
uh i i guess i see all of us benefiting and i i don't see it just relegated to the young
but i see i i see so much going on that that's bad and this would give them a chance to have some positive self esteem something that they turn back
uh-huh
well and and also you know you you you feel more like you know you're actually part of the community if you've done something in it
that's right you take pride in that and and get some some positive feedback from those who benefit besides yourself
uh-huh
and i i see it being most beneficial if it's in the neighborhood where or or at least the area where the person lives it may not be the same neighborhood but the same city or county
uh definitely
because then you're you're coming in contact with it it's not as meaningful for me to go to Minnesota and do something up there that i'll never be able to see again unless i happen to go on vacation up there
right
yeah
it's so it almost needs to be something that has more
impact for the individual on going
yeah
but as far as putting that into work i don't want to i don't want to deal with the with the heartache of first of all getting it started and figuring out how to do the logistics
oh uh that would be a nightmare
and just i mean just getting getting it going
yeah
yeah
i i see a lot of things like uh scouting uh
uh-huh
Boys Clubs Girls Clubs things like that that kind of get into that citizenship uh the uh looking after the environment sort of thing and and i guess i don't see
uh this being that different
but even more beneficial because it would be something that everybody participated in and would take a turn in
uh-huh
uh-huh
yeah
do you have kids
no uh no
not yet
about six months we will
oh well good good you have a little time think about that i guess i i have uh when i was teaching school i saw many kids so many kids that were at loose ends
and that didn't really have a purpose and i can see you know some some really significant things coming out of it
uh-huh
i know you've got to get past that that grudge attitude that many have but that's uh
that that would be a part of selling it to the community to the adults ahead of them that probably would never serve and and to each succeeding generation there'd definitely have to be a major PR campaign in each community each county
uh-huh
uh-huh
uh parish or however the state was divided up
hum i may well i don't know around here we have a number of community projects that folks just volunteer for
Boy Scout troops or church groups or civic clubs will uh police a uh a couple of miles of the highway and keep and i i've seen it in other states too i don't know
yeah they have that here um they've got um in most of the states around here i think uh
um
you know down in North Carolina there was a big controversy for a while because the uh the local chapter of the KKK wanted to uh
um to participate in it and uh there was a
and there were those that said no you can't do that i'm sure
yeah well uh it was it was interesting because that's an interesting question you know should these people be allowed to or not i think they finally decided not to because they figured that stretch of highway was going to get trashed
yeah
oh and i hadn't even thought about that uh the other the other end of that that that's an interesting uh situation i hadn't thought of that
we had visited relatives in Virginia not too long ago and i thought i had seen when we were traveling around the state some similar signs up that indicated that certain sections were being policed and cleaned up and
yeah i think Virginia's got it and i know Maryland does and we just we went to Indianapolis last weekend and back and um i'm pretty sure i saw yeah stuff in Ohio and Indiana Indiana about it and Pennsylvania maybe Pennsylvania
i don't remember for sure now
and i don't know about your part of the country but uh down here in the last year oh year plus i it was last beginning with last year's Earth Day
uh-huh
there's just been more of a turn toward uh environmental concerns and even i work for Texas Instruments and they they've started some recycling campaigns that
uh-huh
a year before that had been turned down because they said well it's not feasible it's not a good idea
uh-huh
yeah and but then they lost too much business
and i see that as being
i i see that as being a a a change um it for the positive kind of along the same line as as as the mandatory thing it's just thing
a part of everyone's consciousness
uh-huh well the thing about that is though it's got a i mean because it was i mean it was big you remember like in the early seventies and all that and
yeah
you know and then it kind of just went out of vogue and i i'm worried that it it might you know it'll it the same thing will happen it's like you know environmentalism was really big for a couple of years and then people like well
you know i'd ruther rather spend you know fifty cents less on uh on on such and such you know and even if it's not environmentally safe who cares you know
i'm sure the pendulum will swing the other way uh there have been too many other things that it's done that for just in my life
and if you look at history at all you see that you know uh we go from one side to the other on just about any subject that you one might care to bring up but
yeah
it is comforting to me to see uh more concern about some of these things that that cost us money especially when we have dwindling uh resources such as oil that's
burning out of control in in the Persian Gulf and and so forth just just every little bit does
it makes me feel better it it makes me feel like well there may be something left for my children my nieces and nephews and so forth
well
yeah uh well uh wouldn't
it's just probably a good thing that the oil's burning and may may make some people realize that hey you know this stuff runs out
that's that's right because
of course that's probably blasphemy for you to say uh coming from where you are in Texas
uh no no because if
we what was it in seventy four when we had the the last last oil crisis and and uh we started getting smart and and we were looking all these alternative sources of energy and so forth
uh-huh
and as soon as the oil prices came back down we the pendulum swung the other way and we need those reminders
right
yeah
uh or we'll suddenly be in the dark and say oh my goodness now we don't have the ability to go on to some new technology
right well my dad's in the in the solar energy business
ah
so um you know we're acutely aware of a lot of this but you know on the other hand he voted for George Bush so um you know i i wonder sometimes if he knows what he's doing
i'm sure you are
well i this you know just about anybody you could name whether i voted for them or not uh makes um uh
uh-huh
decisions that i just can't go along with but uh that's why they're there and not me i don't want the i don't want the stress and the strain
yeah
well the the thing with Bush
