President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton participated in a tree planting event at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, DC.
The event was organized by the Student Conservation Association, an Americorp organization.
Also, remember today Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act that intends to more than triple the AmeriCorp volunteers to over 250,000 in the United States costing taxpayers roughly a billion dollars a year, over the next five years.
Both Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy were in attendance. Read more about this here at my previous post.
4 comments:
hmmmm......not sure what to think....I USE to love the Kennedy's, just not as "enthused" as I use to be based on their back-stabbing of Hillary....(except for Bobby's kids).
I personally don't think Ted Kennedy's support of Obama in the election should erase a long legacy of unwavering support and action to promote protecting the rights of the disadvantaged, gay rights, health care and civil rights in general.
Now, I may get shouted down for saying this here, but while I was disappointed that Ted supported Obama over Hillary at that point(in the election), I did hear some relatively objective reports at the time that described more of what was going on behind the scenes which played into Ted Kennedy's support of Hillary and it sounds like some of the Kennedy's felt taken for granted not so much by Hillary, but by Bill Clinton in that he simply assumed the Kennedys would all rally around Hillary without so much as a courtesy phone call to the senior senator until long after Obama had already reached out to Sen. Kennedy.
Now, that seems kinda petty on Ted's part, but keep in mind ALL of these guys have *huge* egos and follow an unofficial protocol with respect to these things. Am I saying it is right? No. Do I think it's petty on Kennedy's part? Yes. But really, I am just saying that there *may* have been more to it than simply Sen. Kennedy becoming a Benedict Arnold for no particular reason at all.
Whatever the case, before this high-powered get together pictured above (great pics by the way!), I really believed everyone involved would rise to the occasion, act like the statesmen [and women] that they are, put what happened in the past where it belongs-in the past and move forward together for a good cause- and it seems like that is exactly what they did and I'm glad of that.
Together, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Pres. Obama can make a powerful case for the importance of public service, either as AmeriCorp volunteers or career public servants.
Too bad Ted simply didn't use the criterion of who was best for the job. Who didn't call who sounds like excuse-making to me (this isn't at all a criticism of you, secretaryclinton, just an observation on what you reported).
PYW- I agree that if the decision was made based upon only the lack of a courtesy call, that is beyond petty and putting ego before country. Whether there is more to the story, I honestly don't know...
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