News-Record.com

While watching your child -- even one who's 24 years old -- leave on such a long and challenging journey isn't easy, Margaret and I had plenty of time to prepare. And not only because his Peace Corps application was approved back in the spring.

We've known since Andrew was a teenager that this day was coming.

He loves to travel, and, even before landing in Africa, has been to many more countries than I have. He's independent, not afraid to venture to new places, even by himself. He's adaptable, willing to blend in with the local culture as much as possible and to put up with hardships and discomfort.

More importantly, he's devoted to helping others. He's taken mission trips to Haiti, Belize, Indian reservations and inner cities. He's participated in community aid projects, hurricane relief work and many other endeavors. Last year, he won UNC Charlotte's highest humanitarian service award. Joining the Peace Corps just continues the course he set for himself years ago.

Some people say the United States needs a compulsory national service program, that every young person should serve his or her country either in the military or some other agency. I guess the Peace Corps would qualify.

The idea has merit. It would provide a lot of manpower for good causes, such as teaching in poor school systems, staffing free health clinics, comforting the elderly, responding to natural disasters and, of course, filling the ranks of our armed forces. It wouldn't do any harm to millions of otherwise spoiled young Americans, either.

With many options available, no one would have to join the Army. In that respect, this system would beat the draft by a mile. While I had no interest in entering the military out of high school in 1973, and I was thankful the draft had ended by then, two years in some alternative service before going off to college would have been good for me. I chose a path that, looking back, was all too easy.

Yet, I really can't endorse the notion of compulsory service. I see required volunteerism as a contradiction that undermines its own value. It may put bodies in motion, but not hearts. I like to say Andrew has a heart for serving others. There's some quality inside him, in his character, that draws him to places where he can do something good for others.

He's far from alone. The drive to serve abounds in our country and our community. It's what makes so many people work as volunteers for charities and churches, to provide food and shelter to the homeless and underprivileged, to give blood, time and possessions when the need arises, even to rush to the scene of catastrophes to offer any help they can.

Yes, people of that nature also serve in our armed forces. No matter what you think of how thousands of them are deployed today, you have to admire their courage, their commitment, their devotion and their willingness to sacrifice so much.

There's nothing compulsory about any of that. When it comes to serving others, what the heart doesn't start the hands won't finish.

One of the most misguided efforts to mix the voluntary and the mandatory is a Pentagon enlistment program that lets recruits begin their service in the military and complete it in the Peace Corps.

While some Peace Corps volunteers have military experience, this is a different concept. It's not that some soldiers aren't suitable for Peace Corps work, although it's probably wrong for many. Rather, the Peace Corps isn't supposed to be a means of fulfilling a military obligation. That also would connect the military and the Peace Corps, likely causing misunderstandings. No one in countries where Peace Corps volunteers live and work should think that those men and women are really soldiers in civilian clothes.

The United States has to have a war corps, but its Peace Corps is important, too. Volunteers provide on-the-ground assistance in countless ways all around the world and create an image of Americans as caring and generous. Sometimes, as Americans, they encounter hostility. More often, they make lifelong friends.

I believe with all my heart that Andrew will represent his country well in Tanzania, that he'll succeed in his assignment and he'll come home 27 months from now ready to begin a new adventure that involves doing something worthwhile for others.

His family will miss him. We'll worry about him sometimes. We'll pray for him every day, seek the prayers of others and give thanks every time we hear from him.

So, I'm emotional. A little sad, and very proud.

Proud of Andrew and of all of our fine young Americans who give so much to serve their country.

Please check out Andrew's Africa blog. He probably won't have regular Internet access but intends to update it as often as he can.