Obama Unveils “United We Serve” … or else!
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009In a video message released on Wednesday, President Obama unveiled “United We Serve” - a sustained effort to expand the size and impact of volunteer efforts in addressing tough challenges facing the nation. Full article here: http://servicewire.org/content/20090619/nsb/Stories-Field/United-We-Serve
Aren’t “We the People” already serving by paying for the corporate bailouts and unnecessary bureaucracy?
How many “Acts” and “Initiatives” do we need covering the same agenda anyway???? How much government expansion do we need? Summer Service Initiative… a part of our daily lives… young and old and everyone in between… to quote Obama, “And when I say all, I mean everyone.” Sounds like an order, not a request to me.
In fact the state of the union is so bad our great grandchildren will still be serving. It will be our great great grandchildren if this idiocracy doesn’t stop. (Continue reading this post below the video.)
S 277 Serve America Act to date has not been passed. Yet government tax payer money is already allocated for the Serve America Corps. The Serve America Corps may sound, in theory, altruistic, however the verbiage used in both the “GIVE” Act (HR 1388 Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act) and the Serve America Act starts to get scary when words such as mandatory are bandied about. Anything that is guised as volunteerism, but yet made mandatory, is involuntary servitude. Involuntary servitude is a United States Legal and Constitutional term for a person laboring against that persons’ will to benefit another under some form of coercion.
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Involuntary servitude is a United States legal and constitutional term for a person laboring against that person’s will to benefit another, under some form of coercion. While laboring to benefit another occurs in the condition of slavery, involuntary servitude does not necessarily connote the complete lack of freedom experienced in chattel slavery; involuntary servitude may also refer to other forms of unfree labor. Involuntary servitude is not dependent upon compensation or its amount.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution makes involuntary servitude illegal under any U.S. jurisdiction whether at the hands of the U.S. government or in the private sphere, except as punishment for a crime: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The Libertarian Party of the United States and other libertarians consider military conscription to be involuntary servitude in the sense of the Thirteenth Amendment. Some libertarians consider compulsory schooling and income taxation forms of involuntary servitude. John Taylor Gatto, a retired schoolteacher and libertarian activist critical of compulsory schooling writes of what he terms “The Cult Of Forced Schooling”.[1] Republican/Libertarian Congressman Ron Paul has described income tax as, “a form of involuntary servitude[2], and has written, “… things like Selective Service and the income tax make me wonder how serious we really are in defending just basic freedoms.[3]
Some have also argued that, should Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973) be overturned by the United States Supreme Court, a constitutional right to abortion could still be sustained on the basis that denying it would subject women to involuntary servitude contrary to the Thirteenth Amendment.[4] However, no U.S. court has yet accepted such an argument.[5] Differing views have been expressed as to whether the argument is so unpersuasive as to be “frivolous”.[6] One major difficulty with the argument relates to the claim that pregnancy and child-bearing are within the scope of the term “servitude”.[7]
The Supreme Court has held, in Butler v. Perry, 240 U.S. 328 (1916), that the Thirteenth Amendment does not prohibit “enforcement of those duties which individuals owe to the state, such as services in the army, militia, on the jury, etc.”
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Let’s get a second source for the definition of “involuntary servitude / forced labor” … in fact, let’s see what the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division has to say…
A number of provisions in the U.S. Code target trafficking in persons, also known as involuntary servitude/slavery or forced labor. These provisions are contained in Chapter 77 of Title 18 and are sometimes referred to generally as Chapter 77 offenses. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 supplemented existing laws, primarily 18 U.S.C. § 1584 (Involuntary Servitude), and also provided new tools to combat trafficking. Key statutes are excerpted below.
Involuntary Servitude
Summary: Section 1584 of Title 18 makes it unlawful to hold a person in a condition of slavery, that is, a condition of compulsory service or labor against his/her will. A Section 1584 conviction requires that the victim be held against his/her will by actual force, threats of force, or threats of legal coercion. Section 1584 also prohibits compelling a person to work against his/her will by creating a “climate of fear” through the use of force, the threat of force, or the threat of legal coercion [i.e., If you don't work, I'll call the immigration officials.] which is sufficient to compel service against a person’s will.
18 U.S.C. § 1584
Whoever knowingly and willfully holds to involuntary servitude or sells into any condition of involuntary servitude, any other person for any term, or brings within the United States any person so held, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If death results from the violation of this section, or if the violation includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or the attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, the defendant shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or life, or both.
Forced Labor
Summary: Section 1589 of Title 18, which was passed as part of the TVPA, makes it unlawful to provide or obtain the labor or services of a person through one of three prohibited means. Congress enacted § 1589 in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Kozminski, 487 U.S. 931 (1988), which interpreted § 1584 to require the use or threatened use of physical or legal coercion. Section 1589 broadens the definition of the kinds of coercion that might result in forced labor.
18 U.S.C. § 1589
Whoever knowingly provides or obtains the labor or services of a person–
(1) by threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against, that person or another person;
(2) by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or
(3) by means of the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If death results from the violation of this section, or if the violation includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or the attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, the defendant shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or life, or both.
Trafficking with Respect to Peonage, Slavery, Involuntary Servitude, or Forced Labor
Summary: Section 1590 makes it unlawful to recruit, harbor, transport, or broker persons for labor or services under conditions which violate any of the offenses contained in Chapter 77 of Title 18.
18 U.S.C. § 1590
Whoever knowingly recruits, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means, any person for labor or services in violation of this chapter shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If death results from the violation of this section, or if the violation includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or the attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, the defendant shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or life, or both.
Sources:
S.277 Serve America Act
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-277
Text of H.R. 1388 Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (the “GIVE” Act)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1388
Involuntary Servitude From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_servitude
Involuntary Servitude, Forced Labor, and Sex Trafficking Statutes Enforced from the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/1581fin.php