Putting your foot into the current of history

IT MAY have been the only time that John McCain and Barack Obama have criticized President Bush in the same language. McCain has said, "I think after 9/11 that we made a mistake. I think after 9/11, instead of telling Americans to take a trip or go shopping, I think we had an opportunity to serve." Obama has said, "Instead of a call to service, we were asked to go shopping."

Just when Bush had the sympathy of the world, he went to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago for one of the most banal uses of the bully pulpit in American history. Lauding the "fabulous values" of a "determined nation," he told Americans not to "surrender our freedom to travel . . . Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America's great destination spots. Go down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed."

Instead of telling Americans to go on vacation, "We should have told Americans to join the military, the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, volunteer organizations, all the organizations that allow Americans to serve this nation," McCain has said. However, while McCain has made only vague pledges to support AmeriCorps, Obama last week used a speech in Colorado Springs to highlight his pledge to spend $3.5 billion to bolster AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, the Foreign Service, and launch an Energy Corps for environmental cleanups and renewable-energy projects.

"I'm not going to tell you what your role should be," Obama said. "That's for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part, ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history."

That's a far cry from how Americans were living until recently. Now the "fabulous values" on consumption that Bush spoke about were consumed by $4-a-gallon fuel. Americans are now abandoning sport utility vehicles. Incompetent US automakers and airline CEOs are slashing jobs. Just two years ago, the Los Angeles Times found a backlash against hybrid car owners who were blamed for clogging car-pool lanes. Suddenly, Prius owners are not way-out hippies. Now they are hip.

While Obama, and eventually McCain, hopefully, duel it out on asking us to do our part, they should be clear with Americans that volunteerism is not, as it too often is couched, something for the young adult or the retiree. Obama says, "People of all ages, stations and skills will be asked to serve," but often overlooked in the AmeriCorps/Peace Corps paradigm is the American in between in their late 30s, 40s, and 50s.

The sad fact is, the national rate of volunteerism has barely budged over the last four decades. According to the federally created Corporation for National and Community Service, the level of adult volunteerism, 23.6 percent in 1974, was 26.7 percent in 2006. That last number actually represents a slight decline from a post-9/11 spike that reached 28.8 percent. While it can be argued that today's volunteering still represents higher levels than the 20.4 percent of the Reagan inspired me-myself-and-I 1980s, it also means that over the last three decades, three-quarters of Americans still do no volunteering in their schools, churches, and other civic organizations.

So it is fine for Obama and McCain to urge "a new generation" to answer the call for service, with Obama offering tuition credits to students who volunteer. But they might get a better response if they can inspire parents to model volunteerism. First and foremost, volunteerism should be a standalone piece of patriotism, but part of a larger plan to improve American family policy.

It is difficult to see how much more volunteering Obama can inspire out of active parents while the United States has some of the developed world's least developed family leave policies and shrinking vacation time. Obama has promised improvements on sick leave, but there also ought to be a national provision for employers to give workers time for their volunteering. That way, everyone might have a chance in putting their foot firmly into the current of history.

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.