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Public service, a noble calling

From the very founding of the American republic in Philadelphia, public service and active citizenship have been central to our democracy. Benjamin Franklin spent a lifetime serving his fellow citizens, not only through the diplomacy that led to our independence, but also through public interest projects.

From the very founding of the American republic in Philadelphia, public service and active citizenship have been central to our democracy. Benjamin Franklin spent a lifetime serving his fellow citizens, not only through the diplomacy that led to our independence, but also through public interest projects as varied as creating the first lending library and establishing what became the University of Pennsylvania. As Franklin said, "The noblest question in the world is, 'What good may I do in it?'"

Americans remain eager to be involved in promoting the public good through service, but many feel they lack opportunities and question whether serving in government will make a difference.

That's one reason we, along with former Sens. Tom Daschle, Trent Lott, Dirk Kempthorne, and Olympia Snowe, and former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, have come together with two dozen other American leaders from diverse backgrounds to form the Commission on Political Reform (CPR) under the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The commission seeks to understand the causes and consequences of America's partisan political divide, and to recommend and advocate for specific electoral, public service, and congressional reforms to help Americans achieve shared national goals.

Today we will host a National Conversation on American Unity, at the Constitution Center on Independence Mall, focusing on opportunities for, and obstacles to, public service. We will engage Americans in Philadelphia and from across the country via social media, webcast, and broadcast to participate with us in real time, as more than 30,000 people did at our first event at the Reagan Library in California earlier this year.

A new poll on public service attitudes, commissioned by CPR and USA Today, finds that Americans still overwhelmingly support public and community service. Among the findings:

Roughly two-thirds of Americans support providing a stipend or education benefits in exchange for public service and/or providing incentives to professions and businesses to allow them or employees to take service sabbaticals;

57 percent of Americans favor requiring every American between the ages of 18 and 25 to serve one year in public or community service in exchange for educational benefits and other support;

while most Americans believe community service rather than government service is the preferred way to serve, fully 14 percent of American adults indicate that they have seriously considered running for public office, a total of almost 40 million Americans who have seriously thought about serving in Congress, state legislatures, local school boards or county councils, and other elected posts.

Still, the research makes clear that many Americans would like greater opportunities to serve - and there is bipartisan support for this.

Following Sept. 11, President George W. Bush created the USA Freedom Corps to strengthen national service programs and call on all Americans to serve their communities. In 2009, Congress passed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which expanded opportunities for Americans of all ages, setting a path for increasing AmeriCorps, the domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps, to 250,000 participants by 2017. But implementation of this plan is tied to available funding. In 2011, AmeriCorps received 582,000 applications, but Congress funded fewer than 80,000 slots.

We both fundamentally believe that public service is a noble endeavor and that most people, from both political parties, get involved because they genuinely want to make a difference for their communities and our country. As George Washington said, "Every post is honorable in which a man [and we'll add - or a woman] can serve his country."

We are optimistic because of what we have witnessed around America and around the world during our years of public service. Individual Americans, faith-based groups, people of good heart and willing hands - all giving selflessly to help neighbors in need.

We want to engage the American people, and especially our young people, in a conversation about reanimating public service as both noble and necessary to the healthy functioning of our democracy. As Thomas Jefferson noted, "A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society."

This is the vision our founders had of active citizenship, one just as relevant today as it was 239 years ago. We look forward to meeting in Philadelphia, as they did, to rededicate ourselves to public service and involve more of our citizens in strengthening our democracy.