Access to quality health care and higher education is a fundamental human right to which all Americans should be entitled regardless of socioeconomic background, race, or gender.  Health and education are the most important drivers of economic opportunity in the United States according to Hope Street Group's Economic Opportunity Index, and yet our current system is set up in a way that essentially only allows those who are already benefiting from economic opportunity to profit from decent health care and education.

In their article, Viewpoint: Parallel crises in health care, higher education, Patrick Callan and Andrew Yarrow argue that this crisis is enormously dangerous to "a prosperous, optimistic American future" - but I would take their argument one step further and add that this crisis is detrimental to the survival of America as we know it, and the signs are beginning to show already.  The United States was a major force behind the creation of the global knowledge economy, and yet, compared to many industrialized countries, it is churning out one of the most ill-prepared workforces entering this economy.  If this continues, our nation will see an increasingly larger portion of future generations working harder and achieving less.  If we reach a point where hard work is no longer rewarded, we will in essence create a system that mimics an old arch-enemy that haunted our very existence during the Cold War.  Ironically, we continue to fight wars to protect our democracy from foreign influences, while our internal politics slowly chips away at the very foundations on which our democracy is based.

Our forefathers built a democracy on the intentional use of the word suffrage, signifying the right rather than the privilege to vote, and to maintain this great democracy our policymakers need to continue to build on our rights by including quality health and education.

I've been kept apprised of the Public Service Academy idea by a friend who's an active volunteer and I think it's pretty interesting.

The New York Times interviewed Chris Myers Asch, the campaign's creator and primary advocate, on prospects for his vision under the Obama administration.

"The Public Service Academy can be Barack Obama’s Peace Corps," Mr. Asch said. “He needs to take advantage of this moment when people are recognizing the importance of government and build institutions that will last."

    There is no word on whether Mr. Obama agrees, but the proposed academy has drawn past endorsements from the vice president-elect, Joseph R. Biden Jr.; the incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel; and at least three cabinet nominees. People who once mocked Mr. Asch’s presumption now congratulate him on his timing.

    The surprising ascent of Mr. Asch’s idea can be read as an upbeat tale of Washington’s openness to a citizen-advocate (Mr. Asch’s view) or evidence of its enduring weakness for expensive big-government schemes (as some of his critics contend).

    But it is also a sign of something more basic: the frustration Americans feel with the bureaucratic status quo.

I probably don't know enough about the logistics and scale of such a grand idea to properly assess its prospects, but its intention is sound - a corp of better people committing their careers to government service. I can definitely get behind that.

If you've not yet been reduced to instant-messagespeak or simply don't recognize every possible acronym, maybe you don't suffer from "too much information" the way government seems to fear it may.

Writing at PBS' MediaShift, Mark Drapeau posts a thorough analysis of the role social media is playing in how officials are dealing with communications, given the explosion of online tools and adoption among their constituencies.

I wasn't aware of the dust-up (h/t Drapeau), apparently beginning in the summer of 2008, when a Republican and Democratic congressman each took heat for having utilized services like Twitter (for micro-blogging) and Qik (for mobile video) to speak to their employers, the American people.

The hesitation seems understandable (and this story's now a tad dated; last summer seems like one of the 'zoic eras of long ago), but as we careen toward friending the President-elect on Facebook and all that entails, it's helpful to note that this hand-wringing occured during the most recent sessions of Congress.

The tension comes from the most delicate matters of public record being balanced with the tremendous scale enabled by the Web.  I'm hoping We the people find the upsides greatly outweigh the downsides.

Less than two weeks from the launch of what may be the most interactive government in history, netizens are hopeful the online kinetics of the campaign will translate to better government. But as I've suggested before, time will tell.