{"id":384,"date":"2006-02-28T16:21:01","date_gmt":"2006-02-28T22:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/archives\/384"},"modified":"2006-03-01T11:15:03","modified_gmt":"2006-03-01T17:15:03","slug":"384","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/archives\/384","title":{"rendered":"In the immortal words of E. Guss, “I’m so mad I could spit.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AmeriCorps\" As you probably know about me (because I CANNOT keep from dropping the ‘I was a firefighter’ thing) I was in AmeriCorps*NCCC<\/a>. The NCCC stands for National Civilian Community Corps, and it’s been a modern-day version of FDR’s CCC<\/a> program (back during the Depression) – you know the guys, they built many of the buildings and trails in the national parks in our country.<\/p>\n

I was in Year 8 of the NCCC. It was October of 2001-August of 2002. I spent 10 months in the program, and I can say without a doubt that thus far in my life, it has been the most impacting, interesting, eye-opening, exciting, thought-provoking, bonding, tough, neato adventure I’ve had. Ever ever.<\/p>\n

That’s why I’m so disappointed and discouraged that the 2007 national budget doesn’t have room for it<\/a>. There has been a budget cut within AmeriCorps. Half of the total budget cut is the elimination of the NCCC program. They cite high costs of the program and being “rated poorly in a recent Federal management assessment”.<\/p>\n

I’m not surprised at either of these reasons. We were fed and housed, had a 15-passenger van (with a gas card), uniforms, backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, and an administration team back at the campus to keep things running. That’s pretty costly, compared to the other volunteer programs AmeriCorps runs.<\/p>\n

And as for management, it’s a government program, for Cripe’s sake. Of course<\/em> it was manged in a ridiculous fashion.<\/p>\n

But it was also the most amazing thing I’ve ever done, and outside of joining the Peace Corps<\/a> (which I still may do), it’s one of the most amazing things someone young can do as far as up-to-your-elbows volunteering.<\/p>\n

I’m really disappointed. My heart is hanging low in my chest today. I want there to be a solution – I want there to be a small organization that wants carry on the tradition – providing national-level volunteering for all sorts of kids all over the country.<\/p>\n

And not to get really bitchy about the whole thing, but the announcement mentioned that they were closing the NCCC despite its popularity – especially the disaster services it provided. My first day of training, in Washington, D.C., was less than a month after the Tragic Events of September 2001<\/em>. I have a photograph of a still-smoking Pentagon, as we drove by it. After training, half of our campus immediately went to New York City and began helping FEMA and the Red Cross with disaster services. I didn’t go because I continued on to firefighting training – and saved taxpayers $300 a day (my estimate, after talking to the paid crew) by being on a volunteer fire fighting team.<\/p>\n

And Hi, New Orleans? God knows how many NCCCers are recovering from the emotional drain disaster relief brings. We are all disaster-relief trained, meaning we are a movable set of squads of people ready to help in the event of a disaster. I don’t think right now is the time to get rid of a program that provides that particular service. I was talking to a State Farm trainer for their claims-adjustment department, and he said they’re not only hiring more national catastrophe adjusters, they’re keeping them in the lower states – because weather predictions are that this isn’t the last of Mutha Na-tcha coming to get us.<\/p>\n

I had a life-altering experience, which is pretty standard for everyone who goes through the program. I met friends who I love, even if we’re spread quite evenly across the United States. I mourn all the things this means about our country’s ability to manage a budget, stay out of ill-reasoned wars, provide meaningful opportunity to its young adults, and instill the feel of altruism in its citizens.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7338\"<\/a>
\nAnd I’m very, very glad that I DID apply, and WAS accepted, and DID go volunteer with the NCCC, because I met one of my best friends there. Too fucking bad<\/a> he’s dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OH, and apparently I’ve ranted about the scrutiny of AmeriCorps*NCCC before<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you probably know about me (because I CANNOT keep from dropping the ‘I was a firefighter’ thing) I was in AmeriCorps*NCCC. The NCCC stands for National Civilian Community Corps, and it’s been a modern-day version of FDR’s CCC program (back during the Depression) – you know the guys, they built many of the buildings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantlet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}