"Responsibility is so much sweeter when it's free will that causes one to help people."
Steve Pietila, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

"Free will," as Steve uses it, means not mandated by a force outside oneself. Service in the truly Volunteer Corps is not mandated and the volunteers are not paid, as are most staff members in nonprofit entities and the volunteers participating in the federal government's National Service. That is what is meant by the adjective "truly" as used in connection with the Volunteer Corps advocated by Another Way .

Referring to National Service, or any form of mandatory service as voluntary service may be an oxymoron. In advocating National Service, some claim it will appeal to the "sleeping angels in one's nature." On the other hand, to pay those angels could lower the heights to which they might otherwise soar.

There is no need to resort to force. Americans are among the most generous people in the world and most do not care whether a person is in distress because of his own weakness and lack of effort, or because of circumstances which would have been beyond anyone's control. The mere fact that a need exists is reason enough for many Americans to take action. Citizens in America, in larger percentages than anywhere else in the world, help one another. But as Steve says, the results are better, if the motivation is desire rather than obligation.

This unprecedented generosity is part and parcel of our political system. The American ideal flourishes when accompanied by a peculiar brand of freedom; a freedom that entails risk. The American political system anticipated citizens living with uncertainty. Because America's political structure was not a planned economy where security was offered in exchange for regulation, ordinary Americans often found themselves living on the brink of disaster. This bred sympathy for one's fellows; a sympathy unparalleled in the history of mankind. But that was before the emergence of the now co-existent welfare state and its "goodwill by mandate". The old American goodwill cannot be mandated. It is the natural outpouring of sympathy by those who have themselves lived with insecurity and can appreciate its peaks and valleys. William Buckley does not agree.