On July 17, 1980 a man stood before a large and enthusiastic audience. He made a speech -- an eloquent speech that stirred the people before him. They applauded, cheered, and were captivated by his words:
“Let us pledge to restore, in our time, the American spirit of voluntary service, of co-operation, of private and community initiative; a spirit that flows like a deep and mighty river through the history of this nation.”
On that same day, Ralph Pryor, a 72 year old VISTA volunteer in Maryland, spent the day making sure that his team of twenty-five senior citizens were getting to all the optometrists they were trying to enroll in their low cost quality eye care program. The program, one of only two in the country, was a self-help effort between the senior citizens and the optometrists who agreed to participate. Ralph was pleased but tired when he got home. They had done something without the government helping them.
Ralph Pryor didn’t hear the speech. Sister Francis Bartos didn’t either. On July 17, 1980, Sister Francis was busy as a VISTA volunteer. She spent the day helping three developmentally disabled residents of Flemingsburg, Kentucky learn about the “real world”. She taught them how to go shopping alone, how to get to the post office, and how to cook their own dinner. She taught them to help themselves.
On that same July,17, 1980, Francie Gerace, a former VISTA volunteer had a headache. Kate Kelley, one of her VISTA volunteers, who she supervised as the Director of SWAP (Stop Wasting Abandoned Properties) in Providence, Rhode Island had come to her with a problem. The owner of the abandoned house on Atlantic Avenue wouldn’t lower his price. After weeks of trying to convince the owner who had abandoned the house he still wouldn’t lower the price. The house was the final piece of a block rehab project. If she could get the price lowered the Gomes family could afford to buy it and begin rehabbing. Kate wanted to give up. Francie wouldn’t let her. Francie talked; her through the problem. She didn’t hear the speech either.
Listen again:
“Let us pledge to restore, in our time, the American spirit of voluntary service, of co-operation, of private and community initiative; a spirit that flows like a deep and-mighty river through the history of our nation.”
Those words were spoken by Ronald Reagan on the day he accepted the Republican nomination for President in Detroit. On that same day, Francie Gerace, Sister Francis Bartos, Ralph Pryor and 4,000 other VISTA volunteers were in deed and in word restoring the American spirit of voluntary service. They were volunteering.
President Reagan’s belief in voluntary action is not new. Two years ago, in December of 1978, Ronald Reagan said this on a radio broadcast:
“You don’t need billions of dollars of taxpayers dollars to save a city. You need a sense of purpose, some pride, some hope and a capacity for work on the part of people who want nothing more than to change for the better their little corner of the world.”
Four months later, in April of 1979 this committee held extensive hearings on re-authorizing VISTA. You heard many people with different backgrounds express similar sentiments about VISTA’s volunteers – their sense of purpose, their capacity for work, their devotion to helping people help themselves. Bankers, farmers, neighborhood leaders, mayors, lawyers and just plain folk came before this Committee to testify about the voluntary spirit of VISTA’s Volunteers.
The Vice President of a Chicago bank, Jim Fletcher, said that the VISTA Volunteers serving his neighborhood were an example of “action oriented patriotism”.
Elijah Freeman, the manager of the Sea Island Small Farmers Co-op, told how VISTA volunteers “worked and worked tirelessly” to help him and other farmers rebuild their co-op, market their beans, and get through the bureaucracy of the FMHA.
You heard a 67 year old retired steelworker, Raymond Dennis, say that, “VISTA is probably the only program, whether public or private, which enables someone my age and with my experience to become active in serving poor people.”
John Cobb, a man whose lungs are filled with cotton dust said, “our VISTA worker in Anderson and all the others have worked long and hard. They are more than employees, more than volunteers; they are our family.”
You heard Sally Fisher, the mother of four children, and a neighborhood leader from Brooklyn, say that “VISTA is one of the very few Federal programs that help us help ourselves.”
Patriotism... working tirelessly... family... helping us help ourselves. Strong words. Words of praise for VISTA. Words that are not dissimilar to those spoken by the President. My point by now I am sure is obvious. VISTA volunteers have the “spirit of voluntary service” that the President asks all Americans to have -- and they act on it.
My opinions are well known to the members of this Committee. I have not come here to repeat myself. And, I have not come here to tell members of the Committee that they should ignore public opinion and resist the pressure to balance the budget. I recognize the political realities that each of you must confront.
But it seems to me important that the members of this Committee recognize that the President’s idealism has to be translated into specific actions -- that will enable people to make their little corners of the world better.
There is a great fondness these days of talking about supply side economics. I do not quite understand it yet. But I do know that as the larger social service programs stop growing and the supply of federal assistance declines there is going to be, as there already is now, a tremendous increase in demand for volunteers to fill the gaps -- to help the poor to help themselves.
I do not know whether Mr. Stockman has recognized this part of the economic equation. He may not be looking at the same graphs that I do. But I do know that people aren’t just going to walk out their doors one morning and start volunteering as the larger social service programs come to a halt. They have to be encouraged, matched to the problems, and. organized. That can be the work of full-time VISTA volunteers. It would seem to me to be in the President’s interest -- as well as the country’s interest -- to maintain the one federal program that has the potential to fulfill this demand. That’s VISTA.
I would like to bring one other point to the attention of the Committee. Four years ago, when the last Administration came to town the new Director Sam Brown made a very quick decision. He decided to cut the budget of RSVP. did not know much about RSVP. But he thought that it had had limited successes. So he cut its budget. In time, Sam Brown came to realize the enormity of his mistake. The members of this Committee were instrumental in making Mr. Brown see RSVP for what it really is. Sam Brown had the good sense to admit his mistake. But two whole years were wasted because of the enmity caused by that initial rash decision. I see the new Administration making that same mistake with regard to VISTA.
I would suggest to the members of this Committee that they might take out some “insurance” on behalf of the President and re-authorize VISTA so that when the new Director, or better yet Mr. Stockman, found the time to meet some VISTA Volunteers he or they might come to realize their mistake and have some way of rectifying it. I cannot believe that Mr. Stockman could come before this Committee and suggest that paying full-time volunteers a stipend of $14.00 a day -- because that’s what they get paid – is inflationary. In this town that only buys lunch at the Maison Blanche. I do not often agree with the President.
And, I am sure that he, in turn, does not often agree with me. But the President and I -- and George Romney -- my fellow Co-Chairman of the Friends of VISTA, do agree that voluntary service is an important part of the American Spirit and ought to be supported by the Federal government. I believe that one of the best ways to support it is by reauthorizing VISTA.
