Thirty-five years ago when we pledged as a nation to “eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty by opening to everyone the opportunity to work and the opportunity to live in decency and dignity”, we recognized the power of these “habits of the heart” and the need to harness the energies of volunteerism for the great battles ahead.
In proposing VISTA, Congress wrote these words into the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, our declaration of War Against Poverty: “a nationally sponsored program for full-time volunteer service will afford an effective means of stimulating greater volunteer activities at all levels, will encourage men and women to pursue the ‘helping’ professions as a career and will make material contributions toward the elimination of the causes and effects of poverty”.
For thirty-five years, this is precisely what VISTA and its Volunteers have sought to accomplish. It’s true, they haven’t been very visible. They haven’t made headlines. I will wager most Americans don’t even know they exist. Why? Because these Volunteers, in the midst of the strongest economy this nation has known, work and live where poverty is the greatest on the mean streets of our inner cities, in rural pockets of poverty where the media rarely go.
VISTA has gone through many changes since its inception. It has struggled against those who sought to close it down. Now, after five years as AmeriCorps VISTA, we have 5,528 Volunteers serving in 1,167 projects around the country.
We should all pledge to double and triple these numbers!
Tonight, I send my congratulations to all who have served in VISTA and to my good friends, Harris Wofford and Jay Rockefeller, who have never forgotten the poor of our country. And, this evening, we should all remember George Romney, who for many years spoke out forcefully and eloquently on behalf of VISTA. He knew that VISTA should be a bi-partisan effort and that it was truly part of the “internal defense system of our country”.
VISTA MUST GROW!
VISTA has become one of our most precious “habits of the heart”.
