Chris Matthews (Swaziland 1968-70) Gives a Shout Out For the Peace Corps

On this evening’s Hardball, Chris Matthews had a new (I think) twist to his show by answering Tweets and someone tweeted: “Chris, what can I do to help America?” or words to that effect.

Chris answered immediately with “Join the Peace Corps” and then gave a simple, rational and sound reason why the man should join for all the reasons we know from our own experiences. While most Americans might ask: is there still a Peace Corps? at least Matthews is raising the flag for all of us. He doesn’t have to do it, but he does. He believes in the  Peace Corps. As we believe in it.

The world is going, as my mother would have said, ‘to hell in a handbag,’ with wars and Arab Springs, and struggles to find a way to create democracies, and for some reason Obama and Congress and all the powers-that-be forget that in the ‘back of beyond’ work being done by PCVs everywhere in the development world more good for America and the world is being created than whatever the ‘blowhards’ in Congress have done in years.

I know it doesn’t make any difference what we–PCVs and RPCVs say or think or do–but it does piss me off that so few in Washington realize what Volunteers have been doing for other fifty years! So, thanks, Chris.