City Year: Obama's Civilian National Security Force?

How many of you have heard of City Year? In case you haven't heard of it, here's a quick summary from Wikipedia:

"City Year is a non profit AmeriCorps organization whose primary goal is to build democracy through citizen service, civic engagement, leadership development, and social entrepreneurship. The program offers 17- to 24-year olds the opportunity to engage in 10 months of full-time community service."

Note the use of the word democracy. I looked up web definitions of the word democracy online, and I could not find one definition that did not allude to a left-wing viewpoint. This was the first definition I got from Google:

Democracy - the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives

I came across a City Year commercial awhile back, and what one City Year member had to say is a real eye opener in America's quest to form a one world government: "City Year is about shedding our personal skins and taking on a universal skin." You can see the commercial for yourself here:



The City Year commercials also boast "I am change, and this is what I wear," noting the red jackets with the City Year logo on the left side of the jacket. And just to clarify in case you're thinking Obama has anything to do with City Year's slogan, City Year was formed in 1988, though I do not know when they started using the change slogan.

The City Year jacket is a nice way to make City Year seem "cool" and appeal to youth, isn't it? Kind of like how many youth these days think wearing certain clothing labels is "cool" and will buy clothes even if they don't like them just for the label.

If you'd like to know the reasoning behind the City Year jacket logo, you can read about it right on City Year's website here.

Note that the City Year logo places much emphasis on idealism. Many of the web definitions of idealism are filled with negative connotations; here are just a few of them:

Idealism - the philosophical theory that ideas are the only reality

practicality by virtue of thinking of things in their ideal form rather than as they really are

Idealism (also called the 'Spiritual view') in Christian eschatology is an interpretation of the Book of Revelation that sees all of the imagery of the book as non-literal symbols which are perpetually and cyclically fulfilled in a spiritual sense during the conflict between the Kingdom of God ...

idealist - someone guided more by ideals than by practical considerations

One definition even goes so far as to say:

The metaphysical and ontological position that everything ultimately is mental, including the physical universe

City Year members start their days off with physical training, much like you would see in an army squadron. Here's my thinking: Obama wants to increase AmeriCorps membership from 75,000 to 250,000. I think City Year will be a driving force in increasing the size of AmeriCorps in the coming years. I believe that AmeriCorps will be merging with the U.S. army, and will be the civilian national security force Obama wants, as he puts it: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

I would really like to hear everyone's thoughts on this!