Chris Dodd for President

Democratic presidential candidate Christopher Dodd wants the nation’s youth to put down their video game controllers and serve their communities before they’re allowed to graduate from high school.

The U.S. senator for Connecticut is pushing to jump-start what he sees as America’s lagging commitment to public service. It all starts in high schools, where Dodd would require students to serve their communities for a minimum of 100 hours as condition for graduation.

Schools could choose whether to take part in the effort. Districts that jump in would be eligible for federal funding. . . .

On the eve of Independence Day, presidential hopeful Sen. Chris Dodd promised to introduce language next week into a defense authorization bill to end the war in Iraq.

"I think we ought to begin redeploying our troops out of Iraq this evening if we could," the Connecticut Democrat told a veteran-heavy crowd of about 40 people at VFW Post 10102 in Burlington.

Dodd's plan, mirroring a proposal put forth in the Senate earlier this year, would complete the pull-out by March 31 of next year.

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CHRIS DODD is summoning up the spirit of JFK.

Speaking Saturday in front of Nashua City Hall, where Kennedy kicked off his 1960 presidential campaign, Dodd proposed a sweeping national service program, starting with high school and extending through retirement.

His own time as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic changed his life, says Dodd, who plans to make national service a signature idea of his presidential campaign. He and thousands like him volunteered because, all those long decades ago, a dynamic young president asked them to think beyond themselves. It's time for America to re-establish that ethic, he says.

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Chris Dodd is still struck by the absurdity of the missed opportunity almost six years ago. When I talked to the Democratic presidential hopeful a few days ago, the five-term Connecticut senator was elaborating on his proposals for a new American patriotism through a wide-ranging plan for national service at all levels in the country.

When I asked the former Peace Crops volunteer what happened to the old American patriotism that once stirred him, Dodd talked about the vacuum of leadership and vision found in the current occupant of the White House — and how he dropped the ball after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dodd, who unveiled his call for national service with a major speech yesterday in Nashua, said that after 9/11, the American people were ready to do most anything to pitch in and face an uncertain world.
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NASHUA – Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd unveiled a plan for national service that he believes will move the country to greatness by inspiring as many as 40 million Americans to volunteer by 2020.

The plan would expand AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, require high school students to perform 100 hours of community service, provide tax breaks to employers whose workers volunteer and enlist the skills of retirees, Dodd said Saturday at City Hall Plaza.
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