COLORADO SPRINGS — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama vowed that, if elected president, he would add 92,000 ground forces to the country’s military and more than triple the number of AmeriCorps workers, expanding their role to “meet national goals” of providing health care and education, as well as restoring the country’s standing in the world.
Obama, who ventured into this Republican, evangelical stronghold to give his speech, encouraged Americans to serve their country by working in neighborhoods, the military, schools and overseas.
“We need your service right now, at this moment — our moment — in history,” said Obama to about 200 invited guests in the aptly-named Lions Den Gym on the University of Colorado campus.
“Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it.”
Obama’s proposals to expand government national services also included doubling the size of the Peace Corps, creating a tax credit making the first $4,000 of college tuition free for students who do 100 hours of public service a year, and expanding YouthBuild, a program where young people build affordable housing.
He also promised to create a “Green Vet Initiative,” which would offer counseling and job placement for veterans who wanted to enter the renewable-energy field.
While most of Obama’s 30-minute speech was positive, he did take a swipe at President Bush, saying that in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans were willing to sacrifice and serve their country. Yet, he said, leadership failed.
“Instead of a call to service, we were asked to go shopping. Instead of a call for shared sacrifice, we gave tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans in a time of war for the very first time in our history,” he said. “Instead of leadership that called us to come together, we got patriotism defined as the property of one party and used as a political wedge to take us into a war that should have never been authorized and never been waged.”
Much of the beginning of Obama’s speech hit personal notes. The son of a Kenyan father who left the family when he was 2 years old, he was raised predominately by his white mother and grandparents in Hawaii. He said he had spent much of his “childhood adrift,” never sure who he was or where he was going.
During college, however, he noticed the bigger world and went on to be a community organizer in Chicago after he graduated.
“Through service, I discovered how my own improbable story fit into the larger story of America,” he said.
Colorado is rated as a presidential battleground state this year, and Obama’s presence in Colorado Springs indicates he is fighting for every voter, including those in GOP religious circles.
His communications director, Robert Gibbs, said that Colorado Springs was the “perfect place to talk about service and commitment to country.” The area is home to the Air Force Academy as well as numerous religious and civic volunteer programs.
