However, some element of shared sacrifice might contribute to a stronger sense of citizenship, in the same way that the WWII generation was less selfish than their children and succeeding generations.

Maybe if you could contribute time to your community in exchange for lower property taxes, that would be worthwhile.

dedalus

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‘Shared sacrifice’, balderdash. Those with memories will recall that Obama proposed funding this paramilitary adventure at parity with the US military. That would mean its noble community-spirited members would be PAID, and would presumably settle down to lifetime employment defending us against those selfish, greedy, oppressive domestic tyrants. Not to mention gathering information on dissident members of society for use by the hierarchy against those forces of evil, and ensuring that the flow of information to the public was properly filtered.
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Recall that the Obama campaign, in numerous instances over the last three months, gave us previews of its information filtering methods. Remember their activist lawsuits against the NRA, and their floods of phone calls to radio stations in attempts to prevent critical interviews, and the heroic actions of the City and County of Cleveland district attorneys in threatening lawsuits against those they asserted were ‘lying’ about the impeccable Obama? The fervant members of these ‘civil defense’ corps would be honor-bound to suppress the dissing of its political leaders, right up to the top.
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And if you could contribute time to your community in exchange for lower property taxes, you must be retired – most owners who didn’t inherit their ownerships actually have to work for a living, and that includes both members of a couple. Time is rare and precious to those citizens – and the community political class would not yield much in rebates, considering how common it is for them to be demanding ever more funding for their ‘community’ ambitions at the expense of the mere individuals who have made the sacrifices to acquire property.
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If one really wants to share a sacrifice (notice the reference to individual liberty here?), one can still volunteer for any branch of the US military, and actually contribute to the defense of your fellow citizens against real threats, such as Iranian nuclear weapons. Security comes through strength (even the Obama corps is a thinly disguised proposal to build political strength, at taxpayer expense). And your contribution of some of your own productive years to said military will add some real diversity – yours! – to the most diverse organization in history.

Insufficiently Sensitive on November 13, 2008 at 11:54 AM