I was able to watch part of McCain's section of tonight's forum on national service and almost all of Obama's. I was very pleased to see McCain backing off the notion raised at the GOP convention that only military service "counts" and that other kinds of community activism was a target for derision.
In college in 2000 I was the McCain campus coordinator (oddly before taking the fall semester off to work for the Gore campaign). One of the things that drew me to McCain at that time was his call for all Americans to get involved in something bigger than their own self-interest. McCain's call was one of the factors that lead me to join Teach for America after September 11th, and I was genuinely hurt by the message coming out of the convention sneering at "soft" kinds of service.
Hopefully, whatever comes out of the campaign, both candidates can maintain the accord they had tonight on the importance of Americans of all ages to believe and involve themselves in causes bigger than their own self interest.
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