I met a young man last night at Politics and Prose that was serving his third and final year in AmeriCorp, helping homeless people. He had a backpack full of energy bars, information about helpful resources, and bars of soap, etc.

I thanked him for his service to his country and then he said, "yeah, I wish I could do this the rest of my life, but they (I'm assuming the bureaucrats here in W, DC) limit AmeriCorp service to 3 years."

Now, why in a country where one can be career military and serve 20 or 30 years or more, do we limit someone's service to AmeriCorp to 3 years?

Something's definitely wrong here...