Freshly released from the gulags of Bushrovistan and ready once again to begin serving others in the community without fear of persecution, imprisonment or exile by the jack-booted Fascist thugs from the Midland County Republican Party, local Followers of Obama (FOB's) met...openly...to discuss various ways to re-establish the once countless opportunities for public service that were declared illegal by President-Select George W. Bush in 2001.

Freed from the constraints of the Bush administration's War on Service, the meeting's attendees suggested a series of possible initiatives:

Things the Midlanders said they would like to work for issues such as universal health care and energy independence to more locally tangible goals such as offering financial literacy programs, advising citizens on how to find financial aid and continuing to register young people to vote.

Fantastic! The first four ideas out of the box include 1) Getting someone else to pay for your health care, 2) helping to tank the local economy, 3 and 4) how to manage the aid money that you have secured, and 5) how to help us keep the tap open for everyone by engaging in that public service closest to Barack Obama's heart: Getting people to vote for Barack Obama.

Two more initiatives from farther down the article:

....educating high school students about nutrition and helping those without insurance know of their options.

One initiative to teach high school students all the stuff about nutrition that they somehow missed while sitting through twelve years of life sciences classes while attending school along with the efforts of countless other already existing 'awareness' initiatives involving proper nutrition. And yet another initiative on accessing public resources.

Hope. And Change.

Okay, I over-state with this post a bit. Maybe a lot. But this whole "what can we do for our fellow man now that Barack Obama is in office" meme is already tired. I have no doubt that these people mean well and that many have actually put in service hours. But that is kind of the whole point, isn't it? It is as though service hours put in under an Obama administration are more worthy and noble and that service hours put in under the Bush administration is tantamount to having served in the French Resistance.

There was not a single issue covered in that meeting that doesn't already have an existing interest group or local organization already pursuing it. Casa de Amigos alone probably has a program already in place for 85% of the service ideas put forth.

So here is an idea: Instead of burning up 36 man-hours to arrive at the conclusion that smaller focus groups may be needed to make sure that these ideas are acted upon rather than just talked about, why not just show up on Casa de Amigos' doorstep and ask, "How can I help?"

The non-profit sector is waaaaaay ahead of you. For every initiative discussed by the Hopenchangers Local 122 there is almost certainly an existing group running an existing program. The best way to do this is to figure out which initiatives are most important to you and to your community, find out who is already working in that area and then just present yourself and your particular skill set to them. They will put you to work even if you don't solemnly chant that you have come "in service to the Obama administration."

And then there is this:

As is happening in living room and community center meetings across the country this month, they said, they're still figuring out what it means to support the administration from home, taking directives from Obama's team who is itself still formulating what Organizing for America will look like throughout the next four years.

President Obama doesn't hear your prayers and his administration is comprised of Obama's fellow Chicago pols, Clinton administration re-treads, and Bush's Defense Secretary. Collectively, they don't know anything about Midland and they don't really care. Don't wait for them to tell you what it means to "serve the administration" (God, that is just creepy). The non-profits have it hard enough as it is. They don't need to be further handicapped by a weird combination of cult-ish worship of a quasi-deity and the central planning of local community service.