AmeriCorps VISTA 2010: #1

I, Timothy Dickerson, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

I said those words on August 27th, 2010 in a hotel ballroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was all pretty surreal. There were over 200 people from all different walks-of-life and from every corner of the country. There were kids right out of college trying to extend the party for a little longer and men and women in their 50s trying to find a way to save their communities that are falling down around them. Most were trying to start fantastic and adventure filled lives and others had already lived a lifetime. That day though, we were all there for the same reason.

We were there to become soldiers in a war that has gone on longer than all the military wars the US has ever been part of, combined. We have all seen it. We've seen it on the corners of our towns. You've seen it on your television and in the movies. You've seen it within your own family. We were there to begin a fight against Poverty.

So begins our year as AmeriCorps VISTAs aka: Volunteer in Service to America. I could try to explain what it is that AmeriCorps VISTAs do, but it would just be an attempted paraphrasing of what the organizations website states. Visit the website and learn. Maybe you will be inspired just as I was.

http://www.americorps.gov/about/programs/vista.asp

I will finish this first post, of my year long adventure, with a few words from the man who brought national service to life through the creation of the Peace Corps and who inspired Lyndon Johnson to launch the "War on Poverty".

...Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" -- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself...

...And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you -- Ask what you can do for your country... - President John F. Kennedy_01/20/1961