It’s going to be a gorgeous, long, patriotic weekend down here in DC. In honor of the holiday, we’ve got a Thursday patriotism edition of our music break!

We’ll go more classical for a moment - here’s the Boston Pops playing end of the 1812 Overture. The song usually has cannons. Let me repeat: cannons. This is still an amazing version, though.

And here’s John Cougar Mellencamp singing “This Is Our Country” with the Boston Pops:

Have a great, safe holiday weekend!

WSJ is discussing what happens when recent grads hit the slow job market:

Mike Stewart is putting off law school in favor of teaching in Washington, D.C., for the next two years. Katherine Atwill, an Ivy League graduate, stopped interviewing at consulting firms in favor of teaching in the Bronx. Rebecca Graziano, at age 23, quickly gave up looking for work. “There’s nothing out there right now,” says the Emory University graduate. She’s heading to sub-Saharan Africa to work in youth development.

Young people like these are part of the growing ranks of college graduates who, amid a worsening job market, are contributing to a surge in applications and enlistments at public-service agencies like Teach for America and the Peace Corps.

One thing the article doesn’t mention is the selectivity of the organizations. Both the Peace Corps and Teach for America are very picky, and the acceptance process is often long and complex. The article seems to give the impression that because recent graduates can’t get jobs in the private sector, they are easily accepted in the service sector - and that’s not true. It’s competitive. With that clarified, the article is much more a commentary on the economy than service. It also seems the article reduces the choice to the job market - if JP Morgan won’t hire, then everyone will move to the Peace Corps! This idea seems overly simplistic.

But the basic point is clear - the slow market means people look into not-as-traditional alternatives, especially service. Great to see service covered.

John McCain has an article in TIME magazine about the powerful themes of sacrifice, patriotism, and citizenship:

Love of country is another way of saying love of your fellow countrymen — a truth I learned a long time ago in a country very different from ours. Patriotism is another way of saying service to a cause greater than self-interest.

If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you are disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. I hope more Americans would consider enlisting in our armed forces. I hope more would consider running for public office or working in federal, state and local governments. But there are many public causes where your service can make our country a stronger, better one than we inherited.

He’s got it - the way to change our nation for the good is to work actively to better it.

In Colorado Springs, CO, Barack Obama rolled out his national service plan, which would expand service opportunities, including AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, a Green Vets initiative, and a tuition credit for service program. Watch below, and read along here.

The Chicago Tribune follows up on Obama’s speech and explains why now is such a prime moment for service. The bipartisan nature, youth interest, and proven power make service an attractive goal for the country, red, blue, or purple.

Down the street - well, all right, down the Green Line - the Washington Nationals have a new baseball stadium. And they’re doing some good in a novel way. On July 13, they’ll host Children’s National Day at Nationals Park as they place the Houston Astros. The money they raise will go to create a state-of-the-art juvenile diabetes center.

That’s pretty cool, although not particularly novel. What is new is the Text to Give outreach they plan to employ:

During the game, the Nationals and Major League Baseball will launch a mobile giving campaign. All fans at the stadium – and people anywhere – will be invited to text a one-word message to a special five-digit number and a $5 donation will go to Children’s. The donation will be added to the donor’s phone bill.

It’s not a brand new idea, but it’s certainly not mainstream. Creativity and giving meet again!

We think of ourselves as pretty tech-savvy over here at Be the Change, Inc. Personally, I’m plugged into Facebook and Gmail far too many hours than I’d care to admit, and use the web for everything from Twitter to local news.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned about the poor, unfortunate souls who have Social Network Anxiety Disorder (SNAD):

To be clear, SNAD is a bit different from what psychiatrists have defined as Social Anxiety Disorder, or SAD. According to the DSM IV, the guidebook to all things mental, SAD is “a persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others” (a.k.a. “Life”).

SNAD, on the other hand, is caused by stress from the pressures of social networking: the constant Friend requests, Scrabulous requests, photo tag requests, group and event invitations… Consider also the anxiety of creating things like “limited profiles,” carefully managing how much of ourselves to reveal to our virtual associates — and that accompanying, nagging, guilty question: “Will this person realize I restricted his ability to see my Super Wall?”

Now, I know it’s tongue-in-cheek (and if it’s not, please don’t shatter my dream), but oy vey. It reminds me of The Last Psychiatrist’s post on internet “addiction”:

These non-chemical, behavioral addictions [like internet addictions] are more properly labeled obsessions but– and this is the point– an obsession is not a disorder. Obsessions can cause harm, we can try to help people with them, but they are not themselves the problem, they are symptoms of something else.

That something else may not be a disorder, either: fragile self; guilt or shame; low or high self esteem; flawed but automatic assumptions, whatever– but trying to “treat” internet addiction without addressing the underlying problem is like treating cancer with Tylenol. Not only does it not help, it actually makes the situation worse.

SNAD, Internet Addiction, or a vision problem?

We’ve got some more updates from our Change Agents from all over!

Yasin in Cincinnati posts about the importance and power of service.

Cat in Iowa discusses technical difficulties and progress reports.

We hear from Mallory about Hannah Montana and after-school needs in New Orleans.

Joe updates us on the difficulties of planning in Missouri.

We’re working on RSS feeds for our Change Agents, so soon you’ll be able to follow them!

Welcome - to blogging!

Be the Change, Inc., is hiring!

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT:
Reporting directly to the CEO, the Director of Development will be responsible for implementing Be the Change, Inc.’s multi-faceted fundraising strategies. Be the Change, Inc. is currently in start-up phase and is thus seeking initial capital from a variety of philanthropic sources. The Director of Development will work closely with the CEO in identifying potential individual, foundation, and corporate supporters to help the organization powerfully launch its work through a multi-million dollar capital campaign.
Full job posting here

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
The Executive Assistant will work closely with and report to the CEO and Managing Director. His/her primary responsibility will be to support the CEO in all areas of his work to maximize his time and impact. Early efforts will revolve around our ServiceNation and education campaigns, with a focus on grasstops mobilization, organizational development, and fundraising. High energy, flexibility, creativity, and attention to detail are required to juggle multiple responsibilities in a fast-paced environment and ensure the smooth operation of this start-up organization. This is an ideal opportunity for someone looking to work closely with an experienced, visionary leader and to trasnform visions into actions.
Full job posting here

Come work with us!

Yesterday, Obama spoke about the nature of patriotism and service in Independence, Missouri. He specifically references expanding the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. Here’s the text, and the video:

And John McCain spoke about his service, as well of the role of service in citizenship, at the Naval Academy on April 2, as part of his “Service to America” campaign. You can read along here, and watch:

Service isn’t always your typical stuff - some people come up with brilliantly creative, small-scale, and touching ideas. New York CharityFocus collected leftover food from restaurants and handed it out to the homeless. Most food places won’t give away left over food - they worry that it’s not up to standards, and therefore leaves them liable. CharityFocus managed to convince some great places to give them food.

But it wasn’t quite as simple as just giving out food:

The reactions ran the gamut. Some folks came out of shops and repeatedly said, ‘This is amazing, God bless you.’ The first gentleman that we connected with actually just started crying, as we tried to connect with him as a person instead of creating a transaction. We were trying to not just come to bring food, but to help satiate the part of a person that is beyond food. We wanted to connect, but we quickly found out that it just isn’t that easy. One guy was trying to grab up as much as he could. When we asked him to share for the good of the whole, his exasperated response was “I’m hungry… I see what you’re doing, but I’M HUNGRY.” And so it was.
There was a desperation in the air, and it quickly went from an attempt to connect with new friends to an operation to efficiently dole out food as quickly as possible.

In the past, CharityFocus has given out cookies and lemonade to passerby in Central Park. But this time things were different; this good deed brought up a lot of questions. In the end, they did good - and opened the door to a lot of thought.

Like most people, my cell phone plan expires every two years. Around then, I usually get a new phone - I tend to drop it a lot, so my phones gets a lot of wear and tear. I have two right now at home, SIM-card-less and not useful to me.

So I’m glad to see Flipswap, a website that allows you to donate your used phone to charity! If the phone still works, they’ll use it, and if not, they’ll recycle it (because there’s some harmful stuff in there). If you recycle your phone In Store, they’ll even plant a tree for you (they cleverly call this reLeaf).

You can also donate recycle old iPods. If you’re not so charitably minded, you could get cash on the website - they still donate the phone.

It’s an easy and convenient way to do good. Great stuff.

This phone, though, is not recyclable.
Photo by KB35