ask what others can do for you or our country

A rant from Paul Thornton in Reason...

He opens up with a provocative observation-- and then goes on from there to rip contemporary calls for (mandated) public service by the young. Here's the opening:

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” If only John F. Kennedy could have known what his 1961 call to service would become: a rallying cry for generations of rich, middle-aged men convinced that the nation’s youth are lazy, unpatriotic ingrates.