My friend, Jonathan Weinberg, and everyone here celebrating this special Mitzvah Day Service in honor of all the volunteers of the Washington Hebrew Congregation…
Please accept my thanks for your gracious invitation which allows me to join in this joyous and holy evening…
May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shower his blessings upon each of you and upon all your families. Rabbi Weinberg, you have given me a big subject to discuss this evening—“Community Service”. Those very words, to me, also mean volunteering working in the community, helping in the community, freely giving oneself as a volunteer to assist in the solution of community problems.
Abraham and Moses were volunteers. Called by God, each of them said… “I will serve”. Never forget they could have said “I will not serve”… that’s exactly what Satan said.
The men who started the United States of America were all Volunteers. No one drafted them. Many of their fellow citizens of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York refused to volunteer. They were the Tories.
They opposed the Revolution which was itself almost 100% a Volunteer movement! No one drafted Charles Carroll of Carrollton, or Samuel Chase or William Paca of Maryland who signed the Declaration of Independence. They “pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor”, to The Volunteer Movement which created our country.
Our neighboring state, Maryland itself has always been based on volunteerism. That’s one of the reason why they speak of Maryland as “The Free State”, a political place where men and women have always been free, free to pursue their goals, their hopes, free also to volunteer, free to serve.
The English word, “volunteer” itself is of ancient origin. It’s based on the Latin word, “voluntas”, which, in Latin, meant “will”… my own “will”, your own “will”… Abraham’s and Moses’ own “wills”… Their words, “I will serve” fully express the volunteer spirit… Satan’s words, “I will not serve” fully express the negative spirit of those who refuse to help, refuse to cooperate, refuse to serve the greater good… Those who prefer the selfish course, those who fear “to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor”.
Everyone at this gathering who has worked unselfishly for the good of their fellow citizens, is part of the great tradition of America itself.
Without “volunteerism” the USA would be like what the Soviet Union was, a land where there was no volunteer movement, a land of Tsars and Commissars, a land where orders come from on high, a land where historically everyone had done what they were told or forced to do. Now in that immense area all the new 15 independent Republics have joined Special Olympics. Hundreds of volunteers are hard at work with some 85,000 athletes!
Russia and all the other nations of the former USSR are part of Special Olympics International. Our tremendous volunteer movement, “Special Olympics”, was started was nearby… in Rockville, 26 years ago. It now operates in 140 nationals with more than 500,000 Volunteers worldwide. Many Special Olympics Volunteers are Russians, Kazagstanians, Ukrainians, Uzecks, etc.—volunteers working in “the private sector” in the recorded history of that immense landmass from Moscow to Vladivostok.
But I’m getting ahead of my story. Talking about the history of volunteerism, I’ve failed to emphasize the word “service”.
So, please, let me affirm, “I believe volunteerism is an imperative”:
- If we are to remain true to our American history
- If we are to succeed in conquering the biggest internal problems now in our own country
But, we must also serve, serve, serve… individually and freely. Please listen to these words which I quote:
“American’s cities and population have turned into urban wastelands suffering from every social diseases: abortion, teenage pregnancy, drugs, inadequate schools and teachers, family disintegration, widespread promotion of sex outside of marriage, homelessness, hunger, a growing disparity between rich and poor”.
Lest you think this litany of problems is merely the mad ravings of a frustrated 1960’s Democrat, let me confess that I have stolen the whole list from a 1990 speech George Romney, twice Republican Governor of Michigan, candidate for the Republican Governor of Michigan, candidate for the Republicans nomination for President, and former Chief Executive Officer of American Motors Corporation. He is no wide-eyed liberal without successful experience in our free enterprise system. Romney is an entrepreneur who led a company which created thousands of jobs and competed vigorously with the so-called “Big Three” auto manufacturers.
Is George Romney a “liberal” when he calls for a “social perestroika”? Listen to his words, not mine:
“Communism’s economic failure makes the Soviet Union’s future dependent on the success of its economic perestroika. At the same time, the magnitude of the United States’ economic success that spawned social problems that make our future dependent upon the organization and success of a social perestroika”.
Lyndon Johnson’s original “War Against Poverty” has been vilified and ridiculed! We know it was a failure, don’t we?
That’s what we were told by Ronald Reagan and a dozen Washington pundits, who’ve never served in a slum, not tutored a Hispanic child as LBJ did, not given work to an unemployed black man! But the truth is that the “War on Poverty” created “Head Start”, the Job Corps, Community Action, Foster Grandparents, Upward Bound, Community Health Centers, Legal Services, VISTA, College Work Study Programs, ten National programs, all still in existence, all helping millions of Americans today.
All of these national programs have depended upon Volunteers for their success. All of them were proposed by Volunteers and they were made into successes, in whole or in part by Volunteers, who were willing to serve.. at no cost! No one was ever drafted into any “War Against Poverty” Programs.
At this point, forgive me please, for talking about my own son, Anthony Shriver. But, listen to these facts:
Anthony started a new program six years ago when he was just a student at Georgetown University. He got 25 of his classmates to become “Best Buddies” for 25 mentally handicapped person in the District of Columbia. Now, today, six years later, Anthony has “Best Buddies” volunteers at work in thirty-seven states as well as in Canada, Greece, and India. He also has “Best Buddies High School”; “Best Buddies Citizens” for volunteers from corporations, churches and synagogues, you can start a “Best Buddies” chapter right here in your own Congregation. He has just inaugurated “Best Buddies Jobs” which finds employment for persons with mental handicap.
Another son, Mark Shriver, decided to go to work five years ago in the tough, Cherry Hill section of Baltimore. Today he has created a Volunteer Movement working with children at risk which serves 1400 families in five counties in Maryland and the city of Baltimore. He calls it “Choice”. The then Governor and members of his Cabinet, inspected “Choice” and decided to put the taxpayers’ money behind this unique movement. So “Choice” is a model program funded by state and private sector funds.
And Mark now has been elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. Have any or all of you heard of a nationwide program called the “Community of Caring” for teenage mothers and their babies. It was started in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, again with the inspiration and involvement of volunteers led by my wide, Eunice. Now this Maryland-based initiative which was adopted by schools in Texas, Virginia, Indiana has this year been approved by the National association of Secondary School Principals and soon will be operating in high schools nationwide. Even the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Spring teaches the “Community of Caring” curriculum.
Here’s another new voluntary service initiative which I find almost unbelievable. Listen to this story:
55,000 policemen and other law enforcement officers in the USA and abroad volunteer their time to participate in the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics. Last year they raised $7 million for Special Olympics programs in the 50 states and 25 countries abroad.
A solitary police chief in Kansas started this idea of a Torch Run for Special Olympics. He volunteered the idea, and still volunteers his time. Despite these specific new initiatives with which I am personally familiar. Let’s not forget the largest volunteer programs by far in our country are based upon religious institutions and in the churches and synagogues of this land. All of us have heard of Catholic Charities, and the UJA. The Baptists, especially in our Southern States, the Mormons in the USA and overseas. And, of course there are numerous non-sectarian programs. All of us know about CARE, the International Relief Agency.
Without all of these volunteer activities, our country would quickly turn into a wasteland of selfishness and destitution. Reducing the costs of Government, even though those costs are high, is not nearly so important as keeping alive and increasing the spirit of volunteerism in our nation. I could go on and on about volunteers and service and the absolute need for the volunteer spirit which is an essential part of our American heritage. But, now a long talk has become too long. So, let me conclude with a story from my Peace Corps days:
Nothing will ever touch me more than the story I heard about a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa. It epitomizes the spirit which should permeate all “our habits of the heart”. The story goes that a Peace Corps Volunteer was talking down a dusty road outside an African village up-country. As he got near to the village, there was a mother and her child sitting alongside the road. The child said to the mother, “Look, mother, there’s a white man!” And the mother said to the child, “No, darling, that’s not a white man, that’s a Peace Corps Volunteer”.
Let us work together for the day whether in Africa or Asia, or the USSR or Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles, or Detriot, the day when nobody will say, “Look there’s a white man” or “Look there’s a poor man or a rich man”, but only: “Look there’s a volunteer who is serving his (or her) fellow human beings.”
