Under former President Bill Clinton, the AmeriCorps program was started in 1993 to provide government infrastructure for volunteers. Since its inception, AmeriCorps has grown to encompass over 50,000 volunteers, who work in a multitude of grass roots community based programs.

Since Sept. 11, AmeriCorps has received substantive attention from the federal government. The first proposal to come forth was by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who, in November, 2000, proposed legislation to expand the AmeriCorps program. Their proposal suggested expanding funding to AmeriCorps so that it can accommodate 250,000 volunteers.

Following their Call to Service Act, President George W. Bush made a similar call in his January State of the Union Address, during which he suggested that all citizens should devote two years of their lives to community service. In tandem with this, he suggested a more modest proposal - doubling the capacity of AmeriCorps by 50 percent, to 75,000 volunteers.

On the surface, both of these plans seem like the federal government responding to Sept. 11 by prioritizing volunteer service.

But beneath the benevolent veil is something mildly sinister. Both national service plans include a great deal of focus on Bush's newly formed, euphemistically named Office of Homeland Security.

McCain and Bayh came to Ann Arbor yesterday to talk about their proposals, which involves using 50 percent of the increased AmeriCorps funding specifically for Homeland Security operations. Also included is a plan to link AmeriCorps to military enlistment via an "18-18-18 plan," which would grant $18,000 for those entering the military for 18 months of active duty and 18 months in the reserves.

AmeriCorps leadership is reveling in their new-found, bipartisan popularity. They should be more cautious, since these plans subvert the original goals of AmeriCorps - community upliftment.

What is truly unnerving is the fact that the Homeland Security programs in the work are by and large innocuous. Emergency medical training, community crime awareness and disaster relief are the sorts of programs that will likely be created or strengthened within AmeriCorps. However, by associating a largely post-graduate volunteer corps with Homeland Security is a slick political maneuver - it blankets much of the OHS' actions under the veil of beneficial community service. This shields some of the OHS' more divisive moves from criticism - certainly one cannot be serious in criticizing volunteers?

AmeriCorps was begun by Clinton as a national community service program. Using it as a tool for post-Sept. 11 politicking is not only sneaky, it is dangerous as well.