My colleagues at the National Peace Corps Association often hear me say that Hollywood has it wrong: there are really only two degrees of separation between people in our community.
This is demonstrated time and time again and often in unexpected places. Recently, one of my tennis buddies, Neil Bernstein, who writes a parenting column for the on-line Examiner newspaper, told me--while we were on the tennis court--that he wanted to write about the Peace Corps. Neil really didn't know what, if any, role I had related to the Peace Corps.
Everywhere I go someone knows someone who did the Peace Corps or wants to know more about it. Having our new President speaking frequently about the Peace Corps is going to make these two degrees of separation even smaller. That's going to help us achieve our goal of expanding and enhancing the Peace Corp. That will be great for individual Americans, the communities they will work with overseas and the communities where they will return.
>> Read Neil's column, President Obama pledges to revitalize Peace Corps.
I'm as big a fan of President Obama as anyone. Still, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach with respect to his campaign promises about the Peace Corps.
Shortly after 9/11, President Bush vowed to double the Peace Corps' budget, but nothing significant happened during his term.
Barack Obama was politically shrewd to mention the Peace Corps so much while he was running, since it is synonymous with service, adventure, youth, idealism, romance, hipness, and world peace. We'll see how his campaign promises pan out now that he's in office. I wish him and all of us the best.
RPCV Seth Pickens
Haiti 2001-2003
Posted by: Seth | February 20, 2009 at 09:29 AM