Didn't They Abolished Slavery?

In today’s fish wrap, Jonah Goldberg’s column has the provocative title of “Forced Servitude in America?” He uses the term to describe Obama’s compulsory volunteerism for educational dollars scheme:

In his speech on national service Wednesday at the University of Colorado, Obama promised that as president he would "set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year."

He would see that these goals are met by, among other things, attaching strings to federal education dollars. If you don't make the kids report for duty, he's essentially telling schools and college kids, you'll lose money you can't afford to lose. In short, he'll make service compulsory by merely compelling schools to make it compulsory.

Hearing the discussion on McIntyre in the Morning, without knowing the context of the Goldberg column, my mind went straight to “I thought we abolished slavery in this country?” If forcing students into volunteering for an education that SUCKS isn’t forced servitude, what is it?

I suppose we could alternately call Obama’s plan:

• A violation of child labor laws?


• Indentured servitude - a contract committing an apprentice or servant to serve a master or employer for a specific period of time


• Slavery - the practice of, or a system based on, using the enforced labor of other people