Barack Obama touched on an issue this week that’s close to my heart: Public service.

I’m not talking about the kind of public service that politicians always talk about, i.e., the kind in which they engage. I’m talking about ways Americans can use their talents to serve their neighbors.

From the Associated Press:

Barack Obama urged people Wednesday to look past the “bustle and busyness” of their everyday lives this Fourth of July weekend to find a way to help make the American dream real not just for themselves, but for all ...

Before a boisterous University of Colorado crowd, Obama said the quiet following Friday’s Independence Day celebrations would be a good time to consider how to contribute “to our most pressing national challenges,” whether in the military, overseas or just next door.

“I hope that you take a moment to think about what you can do to shape a country we love, shape its future,” Obama said. “Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July.”

Obama talked in almost achingly intimate terms about the impact service had on him, as a boy who “spent much of my childhood adrift” and often had little idea “who I was or where I was going” because of his father’s absence. But early in college, he said, values like hard work and empathy instilled by his mother and grandparents resurfaced “after a long hibernation.” He eventually found himself working as a community organizer in a devastated South Side Chicago neighborhood, and said he was transformed ...

Obama’s campaign said the focus on service was ... to reach back to President John F. Kennedy’s generation-captivating “ask not what your country can do for you” inaugural address or President Clinton’s creation of AmeriCorps.

During a presidential debate in New Hampshire on June 3, 2007, (yes, 2007), U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel lauded the idea of a voluntary system “where young people would have an opportunity to render public service,” in the military, Peace Corps or Americorps.

“And then for every year that you serve, we’ll give you four years of school free,” Gravel said. “That would give you an incentive to move forward and do something about education in this country.”

“I was confused,” I wrote on June 6. “Gravel extolled the virtues of volunteerism but apparently doesn’t think those virtues are virtuous enough to draw people on their own.”

The topic had been raised by an 18-year-old young man in the audience who spent last summer in Germany with a family whose oldest son was “completing his one year of mandatory service to his country.” The young man asked the candidates whether they would support a similar compulsory service policy as president.

Not surprisingly, they all ducked the question, and while the candidates who did respond addressed only the concept of voluntary public service, neither Obama nor Hillary Clinton said a word. From my column that week:

It makes sense that the advantages to the nation, and to those volunteering, would be multiplied if everyone participated.

In addition to the obvious benefit of investing a year of their lives for the good of their country, young people might find career opportunities they never dreamed existed. (How many high schoolers know what Americorps is, for example?)

And those who entered college after their year of service, in addition to being a year older, would likely be better disciplined and better able to handle the freedoms that come with college life. Think about how that would improve college retention rates - and what it could do for those student-loan fraud concerns.

Think of how it would impact the worldview of young people - and what that would mean for their political involvement.

Wait - maybe that’s why politicians shy away from the idea.

Is the Land of Opportunity worthy of a year of service from its young citizens? It’s something worth discussing over the next 17 months.

Obama presented details of his service plan this week. From the AP:

To Obama, the problem is not that Americans are not willing to serve. It’s that they have neither been asked aggressively enough nor given enough opportunities. In a clear slap to President Bush, he decried that Americans eager to pitch in after the 2001 attacks were merely “asked to shop.”

His solution is to promise repeated calls for American sacrifice as president and, to put teeth behind that, he has proposed a major expansion of government national service programs, first unveiled in Iowa in December, that would cost $3.5 billion a year. His campaign said he would fund this effort with savings from ending the war in Iraq and by canceling a new tax break for multinational corporations.

One new piece announced Wednesday would create a new “Green Vet Initiative” offering counseling, job placement and mediation with industry for veterans wanting to enter the rapidly expanding renewable energy field.

Other highlights include: increasing the all-volunteer military, expanding AmeriCorps, doubling the size of the Peace Corps, expanding service programs involving retired people, and creating a tax credit making the first $4,000 of college tuition free for students who conduct 100 hours of public service a year.

For more on Obama’s plan voluntary service plans, click here.

This Independence Day, if you aren’t already engaged in a public service—whether faith- or government-based—make your anniversary gift to your country your pledge to find a way to get involved. Maybe it’s with a local homeless shelter, food bank or domestic violence intervention program. Maybe it’s as a volunteer with an organization that cares for the families of troops overseas, or maybe it’s as a letter-writer to those troops in foreign lands. Perhaps it’s taking meals to elderly or shut-in residents who have no one else. Or maybe it’s as a children’s or youth group leader at your place of worship.

Whatever it is, find a way to invest in your country and give back some of all the opportunity it has given to you. Because Obama is right: Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July.