[NLA] Volunteers and credentials

[AndresMuro@aol.com]

David Godstead, all other Davids, and everyone else:

Look, the only reason we are using volunteers is because there is not enough 
money to go around for everyone to perform this task. Nothing wrong with 
volunteers. something wrong with having insufficient money to rely mostly on 
volunteers. I have nothing against volunteer programs and people that run 
them. They are providing an important service to address an extremely 
important need. People that run volunteer organizations have recognized that 
there is a gap in services and they work with volunteers to provide for that 
gap. 

My problem is with the government. The spent quatrizillion Gillion, 
megazillion billion is the military. However, they refuse to spend more than 
a few pennies in education. We are the wealthiest country in the world. There 
is something wrong with this., and people need to recognize it. In addition, 
the government puts a lot more monies in workforce development programs than 
in literacy programs. Why, you may wonder? Because they want to free 
corporations from having the responsibility of paying to train for their own 
employees, whom will be earning minimum wage. So instead of investing in 
adult literacy so that people may be able to get the GED, learn to use the 
healthcare system, consider the possibility of enrolling in college, etc, 
They put the monies in workforce development, to teach people skills that 
they will be able to apply in a restricted context (one job that will not 
last forever)  The government wants to use your taxes and my taxes to pay for 
the military and workforce development. They do not want to spend tax monies 
to pay for adult education. Well, I tell you what, I want every single of my 
taxes to go to your volunteers and Jose's, so  that they can continue to do 
the great job that they do and get paid. If some of your volunteers refuse to 
accept monies because they happen not to need it, then, use the monies for 
more resources, for museum tickets, for dictionaries for cab rides, etc, so 
that your volunteers can take the learners to the library, the hospital, the 
museum, the park, buy the learners computers, etc. 

Also, in terms of what people can use volunteers for is to organize adults so 
that they can collectively demand more monies for adult education, health 
services, equal treatment for women and minorities, etc. However, the 
volunteer tradition in adult education originated out of a more conservative 
goal. At the risk of being called an ignoramus by Jose, some volunteer 
traditions emerge out of the need to address a problem and change it. IE, 
organizing communities to address a gap so that the gap ceases to exist.  
This is not the case with the large adult literacy volunteer organizations.  
One other thing, go to my art website and comment on it. The address is on 
the bottom of the page.

Andres 



andresmuro at aol.com

Please see Andres Muro's original paintings at: 
http://www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
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