Hey! We have a new president-elect that I didn’t vote for: Barack Obama. In all sincerity, I wish his administration the best of luck and congratulate all those who worked on his campaign for a fight hard fought. But, given our changing political climate and the fact that this week is Freedom Week, it’s time to be on the watch.

Who should be on the watch? Conservatives and, well, anyone who doesn’t trust the government and believes in the fallibility of man. And what, you ask, should these folks be on the lookout for? My biggest pet peeve: “for-your-own-good” legislation.

Given the financial crisis, Obama-Reid-Pelosi will not have the funds to carry out projects such as nationalized health care or any expansion of the welfare system. Thus, the Democrats will have to focus their newfound power on projects that don’t actually cost that much money, but are equally, if not more, annoying than the rest of their agenda.

A program we can all (seniors excepted) look forward to is government-mandated community service for all junior high, high school and college students. A direct quote from change.gov, the official transitional Web site for the Obama administration, states, “The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. ... all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.”

There are two problems here. The first being that making community service compulsory and then paying people for it is ludicrous. I’m not quite sure that Obama realizes what the word “charity” actually means.

Charity is love (in the form of service in this case) given and accepted freely. During the campaign, Obama spoke of a return to neighborliness, which is all well and good. But you cannot write a law that will make someone nicer. It won’t work.

Also, when it comes to teenagers, the second you tell them they have to do something they will invariably resist. Rewarding community service is one thing, demanding is quite another. It completely destroys the purpose of the service in the first place.

The second problem is not quite so apparent but still relevant. In the beginning of his America Serves statement, Obama states a plan to increase government programs. I understand that many will disagree with me here, but I’ve always found that the organizations that are the most effective and have the greatest positive impact are privately operated and/or faith based organizations. I don’t necessarily have anything against the expansion of the various Corps, but when the government gets involved, things inevitably become corrupt and useless, no matter the intentions.

So keep your eyes open, America. Think critically about these plans instead of thinking, “Oh, well, that sounds nice. I’m hungry...” The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

-Becky Zierke (‘11)

Knowledge is power.