General Colin Powell gave a speech at the President's Summit for America's Future in 1997. This summit focused on promoting volunteerism. Here Powell urges American citizens to volunteer to help improve their nation.
Americans are a caring and compassionate people. We show our compassion in many ways. We show our compassion in what we do for the members of our own family and our extended family. We show our compassion in what we expect our government to do for those of our fellow citizens who are in need.
But most importantly, we show our compassion in an extraordinary way—in the volunteer efforts of Americans around the country. We're the most generous country with respect to what we do for each other. We are a philanthropic nation. But we need to do more. We need to do a lot more. Because the need is so great. Because at this time in our nation's history, there are many people, and especially many, many young people, who are in despair, who are wondering if the American Dream is there for them, who are wondering whether anyone cares, will anyone come around to touch my life, to make my life a little better.
And the answer we give today, and the answer we will give in the summit, and the answer we will give in the years that follow is, yes, your fellow Americans care.
We're not asking for a government program. We're not looking for an appropriation. We're looking to scale up and leverage up all the wonderful programs that are underway around the country, whether it's the Boys and Girls Clubs, or Big Brothers and Big Sisters, or Children's Health Fund, or the Urban League, or all the other programs that are represented here today. We've got to scale them up; we've got to leverage them up.
Because the solution to the problems that affect our young people, and the solution to the problems that affect other of our fellow citizens who are in need, is for us to do something about it. We have divides in our country of a social, economic, and racial nature. Those divides must be bridged by efforts such as the one we are undertaking today.…
This is about volunteerism. This is about Americans getting off the sidelines and getting onto the playing field. This is about each and every one of us who have been blessed by the wealth of this country sharing that blessing by reaching down and reaching back and lifting up somebody in need. That's what America is all about; that's what being American is all about.