Can National Service Heal America?
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The United States, long grounded in the idea of individual liberty, also boasts a deep, cross-partisan history of national service. Building on a belief he first shared at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival, retired General Stanley McChrystal recently called on the president to invest in national service for one million young Americans annually “to ensure the strength and security of our nation.” At a time of mounting political division and innumerable shared challenges, this conversation explores what it would take to implement a national service program of this scale, and what it could mean for the future of American society.
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