In an Op Ed published today, Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford and Andy Brock, president of the Center for a Better South, call for a national volunteer center to help with the Gulf Oil spill. Posted on The Hill Congress blog, the Op Ed proposes a database like Craigslist to match community needs in the Gulf with volunteers who want to help with the clean up. Here’s an excerpt:
With oil still spewing into the Gulf after 10 weeks, Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated. How in the world can people in the richest and most technologically inventive country in the world still not get the doggone gusher under control?
Yes, we feel helpless. We’re in an oil nightmare that seems a sequel to the movie Groundhog Day. Most of us live too far from the Gulf to be able to do something directly, other than give money. And even that doesn’t feel like much as barrel after barrel twists and slinks to impact beaches, marshes and wildlife.
We need to stir Americans from their oil paralysis. We need to tap into our volunteer spirit of giving to help people in the Gulf. By focusing on helpful tasks, perhaps we can mitigate feelings of helplessness and start attacking people’s problems in a more positive way.
We propose the development of a national volunteer center to coordinate our innate American spirit of wanting to help neighbors in need of help. Such a center can be fueled by a national Web site and telephone hotline that will coordinate what local Gulf communities and states need and match needs to what communities, colleges and universities, companies, churches, volunteer groups and individuals across the country want to give.
Think of it as a free Craigslist for the Gulf that the Obama Administration could set up to bring together the needy with those who want to meet needs. Such an online hub for community action could match and coordinate needs identified by Gulf communities collaboratively and interactively. Read more…