No More Stagecraft

Obama painted a wall today at a teen homeless shelter. During the campaign, he incongruously played basketball wearing a necktie. Does he need a valet, a dresser, or Michelle to put a tie on him that does not clip on? The pantomime of painting was done to promote national service, the kind of volunteer work that Obama will try to compel on the Maryland model of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. This kind of two minute photo-op theater is meant to show the virtue of the three hundred hours or so that Obama will steal from you or your school-age children (service required for graduation, for scholarship eligibility, for grants, etc.). Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell will argue now against this conscripted labor just as the late Milton Friedman fought involuntary servitude including the military draft which also may be reinstated to share the misery. Forcing volunteerism is just as perverse as paying volunteers in the AmeriCorps model the Clintons initiated and advanced. There is merit in national service, but that contribution should come from the heart and not an edict.