Peace Corps

This is from the Minneapolis (Red) Star-Tribune.

'U' grads fill up ranks of Peace Corps

February 7, 2005
Maybe it's the winters or that Minnesota urge to do some good. For whatever reason, Minnesota colleges and universities are among the top producers of Peace Corps volunteers around the world.

This year, the University of Minnesota has 68 alumni who have joined the Peace Corps, ranking it ninth among large colleges and universities. Leading the pack is the University of Wisconsin-Madison with 129 volunteers.

Since the program began in 1961, the University of Minnesota has had 1,076 alumni serve in the Peace Corps.

Among small schools, Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter and St. Olaf College in Northfield were tied for 16th, with 19 alumni as Peace Corps volunteers. Last year, Carleton College was 10th on the list, with 23 volunteers.

Peace Corps volunteers teach, help with community development, work on health and business issues, and help with technology in countries all over the world.

In its history, more than 170,000 volunteers have worked in 138 countries.

Mary Jane Smetanka

I have always thought that the Peace Corps was a good idea ever since Kennedy started them in 1961. He was shot soon afterwards. I have often wondered what would have happened if this idea had had time to grow before we fell into the whirlwind of the 60's. It was an ideal that could have changed the world.

The University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin are both strongly involved in the programs. This should not be a "liberal" idea or organization but yet it is. A young lady from our church recently graduated from St. Olaf and went off for her 2-year enlistment. She is in Uzbekistan. We just got our first email from her since she arrived. She has little heat and bathes only once a week. But she is learning how to speak the language and serve the people.

What if conservatives were to get behind this sort of thing and promote it? What if the church simply sent young people out to help. To dig wells and teach schools and build roads? The world would change. It would become a better place.

We serve as military, why not for peace? Why not for the good of another people group and not just the repression of a rebellion?

It was a different time back in 1961 then it is now. Back then people simply believed their government. They had hope for the world. You could hitchhike across the country and it was safe. The danger of terrorists was not anything like it is now.
We lost our window of opportunity, yet somehow the Peace Corps survived. These are the sorts of visions that the Christian Right needs to promote. It would be a lot of work but that is what life is. Life is work. God made it that way so that we would not forget Him after sin entered in.