Serving the United States

"This student carries a 4.0 average in advanced studies and could demand a high-paying salary in June, when he receives his degree."
You would think so, but the fact is that the country is in a major recession, and the corporations have manipulated a massive down sizing of their work force. To be sure, people do retire and die, but that is a hell of a way to hope for a job with his credentials. It is my opinion that we are in false recovery. In just one example, lets remember what happened when oil hit $100 a couple of years ago. Even if a person in the corporation dies or retires, he/she is not being replaced. Unfortunately, there are few jobs available for experienced workers or for new hires from the graduation of our college seniors.

"Rather, he's going to join the Peace Corps after graduation."
Maybe this is the correct direction for him to go, as it is an out when recession is high. Graduate school and public volunteering have always been alternatives to be productive in a dismal economy. Moreover, in this period of globalization the Peace Corps presents a great learning environment for a young grad who, despite his ability, is still immature. In addition, he will probably learn to read, write, and to speak fluently a foreign language. This will be important when he finishes his service and joins a corporation or a public government enterprise.

However, philosophically, it seems to me a person should chose to be in-service to our own national territory, not the land of a foreign country. We need the "best and the brightest" at work right here in the United States. We must stop exporting our corporations, our jobs, and our brains to other countries. I know that you realize that there are places in the United States that are third world. We need to have people like this student to come and work in these areas. Let's look at Obama's experience. What did he do with a top of the class law degree from Harvard? While he could have joined a major law firm, he went to Chicago and worked the streets and helped United States citizens to organize and improve their position. Sure, he could have joined the Peace Corps, but he didn't. Send that young man down here to Mississippi and the still ravaged Gulf Coast from Katrina or go into destroyed New Orleans. Obama was just in NO for a couple of hours and bobbled the entire visit. It's being compared to the "Bush fly over." In these areas of Katrina, MS, LA, and AL, its as if a nuclear device was detonated. Sure the roads have been repaired(well the interstate), the casinos have been rebuilt, and the NO SuperDome has been repaired and open for NFL games. Do you realize that there is no full functioning hospital yet operating in NO? Many medical professinals from specialists to family doctors, to radiologists, surgical nurses, critical care nurses rns, lpns, cnas, secretaries, receptionists, maintainance, and all support services are lacking. Now, why is this? Poverty and Racism in a nutshell. Let young men and women come to NO and be in-service to their own citizens.Do you realize that whole towns on the Alabama and Mississippi Gulf Coasts were wiped out. Where there was once a town with schools, churches, businesses, support systems, its all gone, only the foundations are remaining. So, you might ask, where did all the money go? Do I need to say more than these three states have Republican Governors and legislatures? Most of the money has gone to the bureaucracy, to corporations, the casinos, and the support services for those industries such as major transportation. The Governor of Mississippi, our friend Haley Barbour, has appropriated the lion share of the money to rebuild the shipbuilding industry, Ingalls, to build a new export-import trade port, and a cruise ship port. The rationale? Barbour justifies using the money, and Bush agreed, for these purposes as a way to provide for future jobs. In the meantime, human misery continues.
Don't we have a responisibility to take care of our own first? Another example, what do you suppose happened to all the nursing homes residents in Katrina's path? It's suffering that we usually don't think about, yet the needs are immense. Where is the volunteer in America? Tilting at windmills in some foreign global village? Can't we be do-gooders to our own citizens? Do these young men want to speak out against poverty, injustice, and racism? Let them stay home in the United States and provide their exceptionalism to their own citizens. Maybe you can bring this alternative to the young man that you have written about. Hasn't Obama shown the way?