Mobilize America's foot soldiers

All this is music to my ears, as someone who has been working in the communitarian vineyards since 1990. But I must note that lost among all these fair-weather programs is the one that directly speaks to America's urgent need for much more homeland protection – the Citizen Corps.

The Citizen Corps has only two problems: its name and its size.

The name means nothing. It could be about getting people to vote, serve on juries, or remember to renew their passports. For some reason, the obvious title – the Homeland Protection Corps – has been avoided.

More disconcerting, the Citizen Corps has been slow to get rolling. It has a tiny staff in Washington, even if one grants that homeland protection is largely a local matter. People who write seeking to volunteer get a form letter six months later thanking them for their availability. Overall, the Citizen Corps has not caught the eye or imagination of the public and is largely unknown.

One suggestion got much attention, most of it unfavorable: Americans with special access to people's homes and lives – meter readers, mail deliverers, truck drivers – are to report suspicious activity to the government. This has been correctly seen as a threat to make Americans snoop on each other and grossly violate their privacy.

At the same time, it is hard to imagine that if a bunch of foreigners comes to a private flight school and seeks again to learn to fly planes but not land them, or rent a fuel truck and ask where the biggest synagogue is in town (as happened in Tunisia), such conduct will not be reported.

The new program, called Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, must be accompanied by extensive public education warning against misuse. It should include penalties for abuse, and call attention to the danger of cluttering the system. But carefully selected reporting of hard facts should not be discouraged.

Fighting terrorism is a long-term drive. Look at countries that have faced terrorism in the past; it took decades or longer for them to come to terms with it. Americans will find it difficult to persevere unless we are called upon to modify our lifestyle some. The average American will have to give up some hours of TV-watching and dedicate those to homeland protection.

Volunteers will discover that this form of service makes them feel better about their country and themselves, as well as more secure. But for all this to happen, the homeland protection corps must be run up the flagpole rather than hidden.

Its unique importance has to be signaled by national leaders, even if this means thinning out the ranks of other worthy forms of volunteerism.

• Amitai Etzioni is a university professor at George Washington University and author of 'The Spirit of Community.'

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