Archive - March 11, 2010

A couple days ago I mentioned that Ann Lounsbery Owens (Ethiopia 1962-64) had a letter home from Ethiopia to her mother that has just been published in a new book entitled,  Letters to Jackie: Condolences From a Grieving Nation. Ann lives in Seattle and a reporter for KING5 TV emailed me about where they might find Ann Owens.  I was able to help the station and last night, and again this morning, a short segment was broadcast about her letter, Kennedy, and being an Ethiopia PCV all those years ago. Here’s a link to their web site, KING5.com http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Seattle-woman-reflects-on-letter-sent-to-Jackie-Kennedy-87289642.html

I asked Warren to give me a quick summary of some of the famous early staffers, all men of course, from the first days of the ’60s. Charlie Peters, for example, who went onto start the Washington Monthly.   “Charlie,” said Wiggins, “was one of those insightful, appreciative, wonderful minds. We didn’t have many exceptional minds in the Peace Corps, but Charlie’s really is exceptional, and what he did with the evaluation function was what needed to be done and it was first rate.” What about Frank Mankiewicz? Frank would be hired by Bobby Kennedy to be his press person after the Peace Corps. “Frank, given all I’ve said about volunteerism and amateurism and anti-professionalism and all of that, he was willing to drop Volunteers by parachute, and he did it and made it go. He talked the success of it, and denounced the critics and always dealt with Shriver and . . .

There is a terrific op-ed in the New York Times this morning, Thursday, March 11, 2010, by Nicholas Kristof on a new international program he is proposing, Teach for the World. Kristof says (rightly!) “A generation ago, the most thrilling program for young people was the Peace Corps. Today, it’s Teach for America, which this year has attracted 46,000 applicants who are competing for about 4,500 slots.” He goes onto say,”Peace Corps and Teach for America represent the best ethic of public service. But at a time when those programs can’t meet the demand from young people seeking to give back, we need a new initiative: Teach for the Wor The program would be open to Americans 18 and over. It could be used for a gap year between high school and college, but more commonly would offer a detour between college and graduate school or the real world.” The . . .