It's Time For A Compulsory National Service Program

I have for a long time been a proponent of compulsory national service, especially for those between the ages of 18 and 25. If I had had that option when I was in that age range, I would have welcomed it.

National service would line up with what President John F. Kennedy said in the 1960s,"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Recently I was pleasantly surprised to read in Arnold Rampersad's biography of the African-American author Ralph Ellison that "Ralph called for the formation of a kind of compulsory national service, in which youths could choose either military or civilian involvement."

It wouldn't be a bad idea to extend participation to able-bodied individuals in their 30s and 40s as an alternative to welfare-to-work programs which only line the pockets of for-profit workfare company executives and do little to nothing to improve the economic and employment possibilities for people in need.

Here would be a golden opportunity to offer on-the-job training, coupled with a living wage. The program would not only provide candidates in the program with meaningful work experience instead of low wage, dead-end jobs, it would benefit the country as a whole, especially the many infrastructure projects that need to be done.

I see so many people--young, middle-age, and beyond--who hang out on street corners or building stoops instead of being involved in productive activities.

If the Republicans are truly serious about reducing the welfare rolls as well as crime (and recidivism), they should get behind a national service program. It would be one of the best things that could happen to this country.

Looking For Work Via Television

On city-owned WNYE/Channel 25 in New York, there was a weekly program called Job Hunt that aired right after the 2008 financial crisis that caused mass layoffs and housing foreclosures across the country.

Each week different guests would discuss a particular job-search topic and critique the job-search strategy of that week's job seeker who was someone the New York Daily News had profiled in its Monday career section.

As the job seeker spoke of his or her job search goals, they would appear on-camera from different angles. This approach reminded me of the time my mother went on TV seeking employment as a domestic worker. This was in the early 1960s when we were living in Los Angeles.

She went on the John J. Anthony Show, which was an advice show broadcast from a studio at 1313 North Vine Street in Hollywood. I think the show was on Channel 9, KHJ-TV. As I sat in the studio, I could see her image on the black-and-white monitors. They wouldn't show her whole face, unlike the Job Hunt broadcasts. The camera would focus on her hands, her mouth, maybe a side view as she was being interviewed by John J. Anthony's wife. Mrs. Anthony was so short that she had to sit on a telephone book behind a large desk.

In a far corner of the studio was the psychic Criswell, who might have been a regular feature of the show. His famous line before each prediction was "I predict...." Years later when I saw the biopic Ed Wood, about the world's worst film director, and starring Johnny Depp as Wood, the actor portraying Criswell brought me back to the time I saw him in the flesh.

After my mother's TV appearance, I vaguely recall her receiving a few job offers. You could say that John J. Anthony (1902-1970) whose real name was Lester Kroll and who at one time had been an actor, was doing back then a forerunner to today's video resume.

I often wonder if that particular show was recorded and if so, does it exist in some vault somewhere? For all I know, it might be on YouTube, like everything else these days.