9/11 Day of Service - Free Concert

As the eighth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act is creating some controversy.

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE EDWARD M. KENNEDY SERVE AMERICA ACT
March 26, 2009

I’m so pleased that the Senate overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act -- legislation that will usher in a new era of service. I want to applaud all those who have worked so hard to see this bill through, and I am eager to sign it into law.

This legislation will help create new opportunities for millions of Americans at all stages of their lives. From improving service learning in schools to creating an army of 250,000 volunteers a year dedicated to addressing our nation's toughest problems. From connecting working Americans to a variety of part-time service opportunities to better utilizing the skills and experience of our retirees and baby boomers. This legislation will help tap the genius of our faith based and community organizations, and it will find the most innovative ideas for addressing our common challenges and helping those ideas grow.

It is fitting that this legislation is named after Ted Kennedy, a person who has never stopped asking what he could do for his country. This legislation is not just a tribute to the service to which he has dedicated his life, it is a call to action for the rest of us. Our work is not finished when I sign this bill into law – it has just begun. While our government can provide every opportunity imaginable for us to serve our communities, it is up to each of us to seize those opportunities. To do our part to lift up our fellow Americans. To realize our own true potential. I call on all Americans to stand up and do what they can to serve their communities, shape our history and enrich both their own lives and the lives of others across this country.

What's with this "legislation that will usher in a new era of service" stuff?

Encouraging Americans to volunteer and serve their communities isn't a new idea at all. Can you think of a president who didn't call on Americans to make the country a better place?

President George W. Bush repeatedly called on the nation to volunteer.

Does the USA Freedom Corps sound familiar?

President Bush challenged the nation Monday to rekindle the volunteer spirit it had after the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history, when people rushed to help others however they could.

"The truth of the matter is, the farther we've gotten away from 9/11, that memory has begun to fade," Bush told an audience of volunteers on the South Lawn.

"And some are saying, 'Well maybe I don't need to volunteer. Maybe the crisis has passed.' The aftermath of 9/11 isn't nearly as intense as it was," Bush said. "My call to people is, there's always a need. You should be volunteering not because of 9/11; you should be volunteering because our country needs you."

Bush spent most of his comments praising the strength of volunteerism around the country. But his call to service, coming on the week of the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, underscored worries that volunteering can tend to drop off after big tragedies.

The White House event also gave Bush a platform to tout what aides say is a little-known part of his legacy.

In 2002, Bush created USA Freedom Corps, a program that helps connect people to volunteer opportunities. It also helps bolster the many national service programs that existed before he took office. Since then, the White House says, the number of volunteers has jumped by more than 1 million people.

...In his 2002 State of the Union address, he made a request that he repeated on the warm South Lawn on Monday: each person should serve about two years of their lives helping neighbors in need.

The president said that's a lot to give over the course of a lifetime, but that those who do it end up as enriched as those they help.

He also reminded people of a point he made in his first inaugural address in 2001 — that Americans should be "citizens, not spectators."

Clearly, service is not something that is an Obama White House creation. Helping others is hardly a controversial matter.

However, controvery is brewing over the National Day of Service, as designated in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.

From Matthew Vadum, The American Spectator:

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.

This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year's election campaign. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.

The administration's plans were outlined in an Aug. 11 White House-sponsored teleconference call run by Obama ally Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Liv Havstad, the group's senior vice president of strategic partnerships and programs.

...On the Aug. 11 call, Yearwood and other leaders kept saying repeatedly that they wanted 9/11 to be used for something "positive," "forward-leaning," and "productive," said a source with knowledge of the teleconference.

The plan is to turn a "day of fear" that helps Republicans into a day of activism called the National Day of Service that helps the left. In other words, nihilistic liberals are planning to drain 9/11 of all meaning.

"They think it needs to be taken back from the right," said the source. "They're taking that day and they're breaking it because it gives Republicans an advantage. To them, that day is a fearful day."

A coalition including the unsavory left-wing pressure group Color of Change and about 60 far-left, environmentalist, labor, and corporate shakedown groups participated in the call. Groups on the call included: ACORN, AFL-CIO, Apollo Alliance, Community Action Partnership, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs, Friends of the Earth, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Mobilize.org, National Black Police Association, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Council of Negro Women, National Wildlife Federation, RainbowPUSH Coalition, Urban League, and Young Democrats of America.

...With the help of the Obama administration, the coalition is launching a public relations campaign under the radar of the mainstream media -- which remains almost uniformly terrified of criticizing the nation's first black president -- to try to change 9/11 from a day of reflection and remembrance to a day of activism, food banks, and community gardens.

I have a problem with this.

This National Day of Service seems to be an attempt to transform the way Americans mark the anniversary of 9/11.

Anything that's a political ploy designed to take away from the solemn remembrance of 9/11 is a disgrace.

Intentionally orchestrating a makeover of the way we recognize 9/11, done for political purposes, is disgusting.

As with most Democrat organized events, there's going to be a free concert.

From the Associated Press:

Some prominent performers are saying thank you to the people who have answered President Barack Obama's call to volunteer and to people connected to 9/11—relatives of victims, recovery workers and those who served tours in the military after the attacks.

Gavin DeGraw, The Roots and other musicians are performing in a free concert this Sept. 11 to mark the first time that the anniversary of the terrorist attacks is being recognized as a National Day of Service and Remembrance, organizers announced Thursday.

Members of the Sept. 11 community and volunteers will be among the first to receive the free tickets. Other people can try to snag one of a limited number of tickets being distributed by lottery.

Actor Gary Sinise, talk-show host Jimmy Fallon, the Harlem Boys and Girls Choir, and singer Anjulie will be among the performers at the Beacon Theatre show. It's part of an effort to encourage more people to serve as volunteers, organizers said.

"Our ultimate goal is to leave a positive legacy that honors the victims and those who rose in service," said David Paine, the president of MyGoodDeed, one of the organizations responsible for the event. "We hope to rekindle the spirit of unity and compassion that followed the terrorist attacks."

Paine's organization, which pushed to establish Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, was also launching a Web site on Thursday. People planning to give of their time on Sept. 11 can go to http://www.911dayofservice.org to share their plans and learn about volunteering opportunities.

This sounds like a noble enough venture, but is it really? Is it a sleazy political move?

I don't question the sincerity of the celebrities and entertainers participating in this free concert, unless they are aware of the August 11 White House-sponsored teleconference call and on board with the political agenda of "reeducating" the public on how to think about 9/11.

For me, 9/11 will always be a day of mourning.

Republicans don't own 9/11. Democrats can't transform it into their day.

Good Lord, if we won't put aside politics on 9/11 and come together as one nation on that day, when will we?

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Visit 911dayofservice.org .