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NEWS

806 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20526

The Peace Corps ..• • A Realistic Vision

Loret Miller Ruppe July 9, 1986

Fort Collins, , Colorado

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The Peace Corps ... A Realistic Vision Loret Miller Ruppe

July 9, 1986

Fort Collins, Colorado

It is wonderful to be here in the Rocky Mountains with you, taking the time to look at our future •.. it is a good feeling to know that we are able to work together, almost as a family, to develop our agenda for the next 25 years. Well do I remember the 20th anniversary, when I was so new to Peace Corps, and I watched with awe as many of you here today struggled to dot the i's and cross the t's on a chart for the future ... and then took it forward to Capitol Hill to sell it, and did •••. which resulted in our mandate for 10,000 volunteers by 1991.

(I'm sure that the fact that 200 RPCVs are employed in Congressional offices had nothing to do with the success of this initiative.)

So I thank you again for your dedication, commitment and willingness to share many hours in service to Peace Corps and your country.

I'm not sure if we should attach any significance to my being scheduled for eight o'clock in the morning •.• They told me that my body would still be on Washington time, so it would feel more like 10 a.m. You should know that the last time I was this early on the agenda was at a Disaster Relief Conference in Mombasa. It was 8:30 in the morning, 90 degrees and 100% humidity, and I gave the delegates to that- Conference a firsthand glimpse of a creeping disaster they had good reason to fear ... my speech!

We have used the celebration .of our 25th anniversary to lay the framework to which we hope you will be adding some bricks and mortar here this week. We have used this occasion to rechallenge America, as Kennedy did in 1961. We have not missed an opportunity to have our message be heard, our challenge laid down ... we have left no stone unturned to achieve our one overriding goal of making sure that Peace Corps is all that it can and should be!

How have we done this? We have held more than 30 symposiums in cities across this land, attracted thousands of people to them, recon-nected with lost RPCVs and formed new relationships with universities, World Affairs Councils and other voluntary org?nizations that share our concern for the developing world. We have reached tens of

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thousands high school and college students through a development edu-cation series: we have reached millions and millions of Americans through a very slick public education television series donated to us by Mobil Oil Corporation: millions more have seen stories in their local media about the Peace Corps in the sos.

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But most importantly, we have tapped into the mighty river of creativity that makes this country tick. And we have reaped ideas, programs, adjustments, thrusts, initiatives and new systems. Honestly, everyday's mail brings another idea, another approach. People think Peace Corps can do so many things that you begin to think that

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we must also be magici Ans to be able to do so much!

So as we kick off this week "on the mountaintop", I am hoping that you will let your creative juices flow ••• that you will dream a little and come up with the vision we all need as our .anchqr. Do you remember the stories about how Sarge Shriver's brain trust practically lived at the Mayflower Hotel for a few weeks while they hammered out the original Peace Corps? Well, maybe here in the student center, or at the Holiday Inn in Fort Collins, we'll be able to do the same thing for the Peace Corps of the next quarter century. It's my understanding that it was here in Fort Collins that the Albertsons came up with the original "white paper" on the Peace Corps, so we know that there is inspiration in cities other than Washington.

In fact, that very lesson has been one we've learned over and over again this anniversary year. In one city after another, we find

individuals and groups "bringing the world home" to America, just as the original vision had it happening. In one city after another, we ound RPCVs in positions of leadership and infl uence in their commun-ties, just as the original vision supposed would happen. In one city after another, we found people craving information about the deve-loping world, eager to be involved, and sometimes at a loss to know how to be.

-What we discovered is that Peace Corps has a very broad

consti-l

tuency that goes beyond the confines of the RPCVs •.. corporate America, educational America, families of volunteers, elected officials ••• all of them realize that ours is an interdependent world and the Peace Corps is in demand because we know it better than almost anyone else!

Let me share with you now some glimpses of our 25th year in America ••• what we found when we went to the well •.. and let me pose some of the questions we must tackle here this week.

I'll start here in Colorado, with a woman, Sue Sadow, who has

provided us with a glimpse of the future Peace Corps. When she goes to Washington in September, she'll be celebrating her 90th birthday. Sue was a member of the Sierra Leone One Peace Corps group, but she didn't get into the Peace Corps without some difficulty. She applied,

••• and was promptly turned down. Apparently, there were those

who felt that at 61, she was simply too old to withstand the rigors of ser-vice.

A sturdy Colorado woman she, she was not to be deterred. She tra-veled to Washington, straight to the office of our venerable first director, Sarge Shriver, where she staged what most of us know was not

the last sit-in to take place at Peace Corps, just outside Sarge's office. It wasn't long before the powers that were at that time began

to realize that Ms. Sadow did indeed have the qualities we were looking for and would make a very fine volunteer.

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In those days, the average age of the Peace Corps volunteer was about 23. In this past quarter-century, it has crept upward toward 29. But what we must begin to prepare for is that we are now projecting

that in approximately five to seven years, one volunteer in four will be over 50!

0 What kind of shifts must we make in order to prepare for the

older volunteer? We are already finding that we must teach language a little differently than we do to the younger group.

0 Should the length of service for the older volunteer who would

like to serve, but simply cannot face two whole years without seeing the grandchildren, be shortened?

(Other~, by the way, are promoting the notion of making our term

of service three years.)

As our American society grays, and the ranks of retirees expand to greater and greater numbers, we must also begin to think of ways in which we can better utilize our retirees as a resource.

0 Shouldn't we be thinking about exchanges of retired university

professors, retired teachers, retired medical doctors, dentists, - lawyers?

It won't be long before we have people retiring from the

computer business. Shouldn't we be thinking about ways in which to attract these valuable resources to Peace Corps service in the deve-loping world?

We've already begun the electronic Peace Corps by sending Kaypro computers to Thailand, and soon they'll be going to Botswana. What can we do to stimulate more of this kind of transfer, partnership?

0 Should we be doing more to develop partnerships with the private

sector? We presently have more than $200,000 private American dollars invested in Peace Corps programs. Should we worry about being too reliant on this sort of support?

At our symposium in Cleveland, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci was one of the speakers. Now the CEO of Sears World Trade, it was his job that night to bring home the fact that the United States was dependent on the developing world, a fact that has been a part of our vocabulary for a long time, but one that we have

failed to drive home to the American people, I think.

His dramatic example that evening was to cite the fact that 40% of American exports go to the developing world ••. which means tha-t~­

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Do most Americans understand this fact, and relate to it? I think they do not.

In Oklahoma City, an RPCV there told us about a recent public opinion survey that revealed that 83% of the American public feel that we should take care of our own problems before we provide any

foreign c0untry with financial assistance.

0 How does the Peace Corps best fulfill its mandate and

obliga-tion to bring the issues of the developing world to the American public?

As that RPCV said, "Isn't it sad that we know the world is our home and so few others do?"

With all the symposiums this year, co-sponsored with the World ' Affairs Councils and the universities, the Peace Corps has been

~ringing the world home, but soon the 25th anniversary will be over.

More than a few people have suggested that we establish a symposium series that would be ongoing, creating a partnership with the World

ffairs Councils, or possibly establishing an Associates program such s the Smithsonian has, which would make it possible to run all kinds of creative educational programs that would reach a broad swath of the American community.

Is a Peace Corps Associates program the best vehicle for reaching the American public with news of our interdependent world?

The need to reach out to a broader group of American people was

underscored again in Oklahoma by an RPCV from Brazil who is now President Pro Tern of the State Senate there --- Roger Randle. He joined us at

lunch, fresh from the Senate floor, and was obviously moved by the chance to speak to a group of fellow Peace Corps volunteers fo~ the

first time. And when Roger took the microphone, he spoke passionately to his fellow RPCVs.

His Peace Corps experience was still the most important one in his life, he said. And he tried to live more simply, and he wanted to be more involved. But then came his most important message.

The state of Oklahoma would not be in the bad shape that it is -he told t-hem, if it hadn't been afraid to look beyond its borders. Our leaders could only relate to the world in terms of hot spots and terrorist attacks. You --- the RPCVs --- he told them, have a special responsibility to educate your fellows at work, at school, in your communities. You know the way out of Oklahoma, he told them.

0 How do we _egui~ our returning volunteers for this special

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workers in a village in Honduras and knew how to teach crop extension skills that they will be able to teach the Lions Clubs and the Rotaries the intricacies of international inter-dependency? How can we expect that a health worker in Ghana will automatically make a good world trade teacher in Portland, Oregon?

Do we suggest that our volunteers establish relationships with the Lions and the Rotaries before they go overseas? Will this assure that"a"t--reast part of the community will have a handle

on what's going on? Is this the best way to reach our United States constituency?

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What kinds of partnerships should we develop with other volun-tary organizations that share our goals? How can we work to mutually benefit the people of the developing world and the people of America?

Part of the Boston Area RPCV group's 25th anniversary celebration was a Back-to-school program, where RPCVs were recruited to go to

their local high schools and elementary schools, equipped with their experiences, their pictures, their artifacts, and relive their Peace Corps experience for the students. very few people approached refused the opportunity.

- we were so impressed with the response to this program that we launched a similar one out of Peace Corps headquarters, focused on National Volunteer Week. With just two people working on it for a few weeks, we recruited more than 1,000 volunteers in 20 states to go into the schools with the Peace Corps story and a glimpse of the developing world not often provided in the classroom.

Also as part of our 25th anniversary celebration, we provided columns about the developing world to more than 25,000 high school and university school newspapers. A survey we took has shown that they've been used by 85% of the papers we sent to, in untold numbers of

classrooms, reaching another multitude of school children.

I think we can put all this together and conclude that there is strong interest and there is a role for Peace Corps to play in deve-oprnent education. How do we do it best?

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0 Do we leave the job to the RPCV groups, db we inspire the

uni-versities to provide it, do we work with the high schools? Do we continue to provide materials from headquarters?

These are questions you need to be thinking about up here in the Rockies.

The Peace Corps has always been a good teacher. It is one of our most powerful leq~cies. I wish each of you ~ouid have been in

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information for the Off ice for Emergency Operations in Africa at the United Nations was the speaker representing the developing world. He began his speech by saying that he had to thank the Peace Corps ... if it weren't for the Peace Corps he wouldn't be there tonight. As an eighth grade boy in his native Senegal, he had been taught English by Peace Corps volunteers; but more than that, he had been taught that it was fun to learn, and that had never left him.

Diallo's experience points up the fact that teaching English is omething the Peace Corps has always done well. We have even revived our Education section of our Off ice of Training and been asked to

teach English again in places like Sri Lanka, working closely with Ambassador Corea.

0 With English now considered critical to the development of

com-merce, tourism, science and educational systems in the deve-loping world, how does the Peace Corps best meet this need? In conversations with state officials and comunity leaders all over this country, I am discovering that Peace Corps probably has a role to play in opening up Asia to the rest of the world, in learning and teaching languages. I heard recently that Governor Orr of Indiana suggested to the University Board of Trustees that no candidate for a Masters degree in Business Administration be permitted to graduate without a fluency in another language, preferably an Asian one.

0 Should Peace Corps be looking toward China, since one out of

every four people in the world is Chinese?

I hope there isn't anyone here this morning with a calculator who's been quietly adding up all these proposals and ideas in terms what they would cost and how much time they would take and how they don't exactly fit into the structure we've found so successful over

the years here at Peace Corps. I'm sure we'd be looking at a hopping bottom line if we were.

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But I think that is one of the questions we have to ask ourselves while we're here.

Just what is the bottom line? What is it that we as a society value and respect, and therefore want to invest in? What is it that we as a society want to export as an image of ourselves? I truly don't believe that Dynasty, Dallas or Miami vice are representative of me, my family or yours.

If it takes a bigger bottom line, where will it come from? What are our choices?

0 _{If the Pentagon's publications budget is more than the Peace}

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bands' budget is twice as much as Peace Corps', where can we cut back?

0 Why is the Peace Corps --- the United States' most potent

weapon for peace --- listed under Miscellaneous One in the Foreign Assistance budget?

Members of Congress, Mayors, Governors, legislators, county offi-cials --- there isn't a one of them who hasn't begun to think inter-nationally, or been on an all-expense paid trip to a foreign capital within the last five years. They all understand the value of inter-national relationships, and are looking for ways to forge more of them. Many of them are part of Sister Cities, or have participated in programs like the Friendship Force. They understand that this type of investment is absolutely essential. Many of them support the Peace Corps ... many of them have been in the Peace Corps ... but how do we best marshall their support and interest and make it show on the bottom

line?

When Martin Luther King went to the mountain top, he talked

about his vision for a world where brotherhood would reign. As we sit here at the foot of these mountaintops today, I think we all must bring our own visions for the Peace Corps into focus. We have to dare each other to dream, dare each other to figure out a way for it all to happen, the bottom line be damned.

We went to Indianapolis for a symposium recently and found our-selves in a thriving, electric, vital city. A city that has suffered the same decay and setbacks that many of our American cities have, including a city-county desegregation plan ... but here it was, very much alive •.• an international center bustling with activity, not the

least of which are the upcoming Pan American games that will take place there. We asked them what their formula was and here's what they

said ••• VISION.

We decided what we wanted to be and once we did that,

it infected everyone of the institutions and the people in the city. The weekend we were there the NCAA track championships were being held and the national junior olympics in swimming were coming

up ••.•• Indianapolis decided to be the amateur sports capital of the USA ten years ago and now they are!

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We must articulate our vision, focus our vision and pursue it

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elentlessly. It will infect the naysayers, infect the Congress,

infect all the decisionmakers.

The Peace Corps was born the product of a vision driven by a man some call Camelot. But let's look at what else he dared to dream and create at the same time, in a country not six years away from the ravages of the 38th parallel in Korea, nor six years distant from the ravages of Dien Bien Phu ••• also celebrating their 25th birthdays this

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year are the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the National

Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Agency for International Development.

Kennedy was able to do so much because his programs were magnets for some of the best and brightest people in this country. They bought into his vision and brought what we now see is the richest of legacies into being.

0 Are we still the magnet for the best and the brightest? Does

Peace Corps, 1n addition to supplying ten to fifteen percent of personnel for the Agency for International Development and the State Department, have more of a role to play in developing leaders with vision in today's world? If we do, how do we attract them, how to we hold them, how to we train them?

Just the other day, the new President of the World Bank, Barber Conable, was quoted as saying, "Economic development requires

capital ... and it's terribly important also that skillful people help the other countries .• get the talents and the systems together that will permit growth •.. " Reading between the lines, I think we can conclude that Mr. Conable sees quite a role for the Peace Corps. ask: With such an essential role being played by this agency, I must

0 Should Peace Corps become a form of national service •.. perhaps an

alternative to the ROTC programs? I think we have to find a way for training in speaking Tagalog to be an alternative

o training people to shoot, which is exactly what a naval commander said recently to a Peace Corps class in

Fiji •.• "What you are doing will ensure that I will not have to do what I'm trained to do .•. "

Peace Corps' potential is in its people and the relationships we have created around the world. Let us use this week to examine it clo-sely and rechallenge ourselves, and our country with the compelling vision Peace Corps has given every last one of us.

You are a vital part of the process of creating the future Peace Corps. Before I left Washington, I appointed some of our brightest staff members to be part of a Future Team. They have been relieved of all their responsibilities for three weeks, at least. They will, like the designers of new cars often have been, closeted in the Conference Room on the 12th floor. They will receive suggestions from staff,

advice from old Peace Corps hands and new friends met along the sym-posium way, and from people at the World Bank and the UN. I have already asked Andy Rice to appear before them on July 22nd to brief them on some of the highlights of what will have happened here. Then they will issue a report to a gathering of all the Peace Corps staff in September, and I will be delivering our collective vision to

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We are on the brink of a very exciting era. The 25th anniversary has been our launching pad for the future. And I am anxious to hear what you have to say.

At every stop along the way, I have reminded those on hand that the Peace Corps is not a Kennedy, a Shriver, a Rice or a Ruppe ... it is all of us. It is our example that is powerful and our willingness to work together as a family that has sustained us through thick and thin.

We do have the vision. We do have the way. Let us go on from here to the 21st century, confidently.