Public Service Ever Restless and

Public Service Ever restless and frustrated with the problems in our society, I was never one to rest on my laurels. For years I worked with refugees from Africa in my hometown. Few of them spoke fluent English, and we usually used sport as our common language. These children, all of whom were in elementary school, immigrated with their parents at a young enough age that they would soon become Americanized. However, their parents might not have such an easy time.

They had exhausted all the official resources available to them for transitioning into the community. Several of the parents were unemployed and finding it difficult to transition into the mainstream society. African culture is almost the polar opposite of the American one Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, and Tipton describes in Habits of the Heart. In Africa, communalism is the norm. The boundary between self and other is more fluid, and less distinct than it is for us Americans.

We cling to our right to privacy, we may go our entire lives without meeting our neighbors, and we live literally in fear of many members of the community. When I met these refugees I realized their culture was build on the values espoused by Bellah, et al. In their book about community service. In Chapter Seven of Habits of the Heart, the authors offer several service-oriented personality types. These manifestations of the need to serve include town father; concerned citizen; civic-minded professional; and professional activist.

Before I place myself into one of these categories I should say that I believe we can assume many different roles throughout our lives and careers. We may act as more than one of these service-oriented personalities at the same time, or we might focus on one before switching to another. For example, a person might start out as a civic-minded professional and later choose to become a professional activist.

From what work I have done so far in the public service sector I can say that I most envision myself as a civic-minded professional. At times I may assume the role as town father, because I do believe I have the leadership abilities to do so and it may be more effective for me to work in the public sphere.

At times I might immerse myself in professional activism, especially if I were to find work with a non-profit humanitarian aid organization, which I hope to do at some point in the future. There will also be times I will act as the concerned citizen, focusing on my family and personal development without forgetting my commitment to the community. However, I have a strong entrepreneurial spirit. I predict that I will start a company that will embody the values outlined in Habits of the Heart.

As a civic-minded professional I will help transform the business world by showing that ethical companies can be the most profitable companies too. I intend to research corporations with strong commitments to the environment, their employees, and their communities. Building on that knowledge I will be able to create a firm that reflects good habits of the heart. For example, I will offer my employees profit-sharing plans and encourage them to become part-owners of the company.

They will enjoy high wages and as owner I will never take a salary too far out of proportion to my employees. I believe that businesses benefit the communities they serve when they help all employees prosper and find joy in their work. As a civic-minded professional I will also come up with creative ways to use the business to benefit the community. For example, I might donate money to a local homeless charity or I might obtain a contract to build more parks in the city myself.

I could also become involved with local politics, which would help the "town fathers" in my community thrive and be the most effective leaders they can. One of the main ways I helped the refugee children was also the simplest: by playing. We played basketball and we played a lot of soccer. We did art projects together and we sometimes just watched cartoons. Basically we enjoyed a lot of laughter and social bonding.

They learned as much about me as I did about them, and we created our own little community right there. I acted as a civic-minded professional with the children, because I understood my role and responsibility as their mentor. Before I started volunteering I acted as a concerned citizen, but this work transformed my self-image. I had never realized what social service was until I started working with the refugees. The work seemed so natural that I knew I could translate anything I did professionally into social service.

In an individualistic society, community service is an anomaly. We have a hard time understanding why someone would want to work for free to help others, when they could spend that time watching television or playing video games. We learn that helping others can easily backfire and so we should keep to ourselves as much as possible. The result is a sick state of social affairs. As Bellah and his co-authors describe, the United States prides itself on its individualist philosophy.

The cowboy mentality, the fascination with individual heroes and the cult of personality are all fine in small doses. However, many problems in American society can, as the authors argue, be traced to an overemphasis on individualism and an under-emphasis on selflessness. Having met and interacted with children from Africa and raised with African values, I fully understand and believe what Bellah et al. are saying. Watching the children play, I noticed that they genuinely loved each other as if they were all brothers and sisters.

They teased each other like siblings too, not worried too much about hurting each others' feelings and therefore also not taking things too personally. I compared their interactions with the way I was raised and socialized. In school, the children form cliques almost from the first day. They view each other as enemies sometimes. The strange thing is that the school system itself encourages unhealthy competition and antagonism. As a fan of sports and a staunch believer in the way competitive sports can enhance character development, I have.