Some Rambling Thoughts About Why I Joined Peace Corps

Because I do not have regular internet access, I have decided to write these posts while working off-line, prior to actually posting them to my all-important blog. So, please forgive me if I indicate I am writing on a day on a, say Tuesday, and the entry is not posted until Saturday or Sunday. I’m sure you feel as I do: minor details like this just do not matter. Let’s focus on the big picture, not the minutiae.
I am not sure if anyone is reading these posts, nor do I care much, to be honest. These are being written just as much for me as for anyone in my intended audience. Tonight, it is Tuesday, November 17, 2009, I have sat down to write an entry. Not much has changed in my life since the last post. I am still overwhelmingly busy, I still have no time, and I still really want to see some sun (though I’m not sure I mentioned this last post). For ease of reading, and some sense of organization I have decided to take a thematic approach to these entries. If anything of import that is worth chronicling in and of itself occurs, I will, of course, document the event. But, if you are reading just to see what is happening in my head, or how I’m doing here, I’ll lay down a thematic guide to my thought process.
I have not checked comments, if there are any, or emails in a while. However, before I left I was frequently asked why I decided to apply, and then join the Peace Corps. This is a question to which a short answer is difficult. And, if I can tell correctly most people asking did not want my life story, or too deep an answer, it was generally more of a question made out of polite curiosity. I am, I think, pretty straight forward, but also can be a bit guarded in answers to questions like this – especially with people I do not know very well. However, the benefit of the written, and in our case typed, word, is that it does not require actually looking at a person, telling them, and then gleaning their opinions from body language, and how quickly they may change the subject. Needless to say, when I was posed the question, and answered “I’m joining the Peace Corps to pick up chicks,” I was not being forthcoming; though, if that is a side effect, I am not opposed to it.
This question for any volunteer/trainee, at least the ones I have spoken with, is generally complex. I do feel, however, that my answer is a bit different from most of my fellow trainees/volunteers. It is not a secret that I love America. I use love here in the truest sense of the word. I am immensely proud of the country and the ideals for which it stands, and strives, albeit sometimes a bit circuitously. While there are clearly great embarrassments, and tragedies of word and deed in the history of our country, it is, in my opinion truly the “beacon on the hill” and a place of great opportunity. These words are sometimes tough to say, but as a student of history, it is not difficult to find a heartening story or anecdote in the annals of our past. And, according to Eisenhower, nothing is as strong as an aroused Democracy. I suppose you can tell: I do not subscribe to the reform-school historians’ theories. I feel it is time for the educated intelligentsia to bring back the “right kind of patriotism.” This is not the xenophobic sort common in the south, and among our ultra-conservative constituents. It is the patriotism that realizes how great a nation the United States of America is, and how great it can continue to be. It is a patriotism that understands our transgressions of the past, and strives to right them. It is a patriotism that welcomes new groups, both of thought, and ethnicity, and welcomes the contributions these groups can make to our mosaic.
I wish it wasn’t so late, or I’m sure this would be a bit more coherent, and worded more clearly and concisely. I could wax philosophic on this for pages and hours but I will stop. Needless to say, I am deeply proud of America. Through this devotion I became a proponent of national service. It is something I feel should be a requirement for all American citizens. For me, the Peace Corps was the perfect place for me to fill that desire to serve America. I much prefer the ability to act as an ambassador of goodwill to the people of a receptive country, than I would to be a member of our Armed Services, perhaps because I would have to shave, and wear a military haircut, I believe high and tight is the phrase.
Service seems to be a calling of both the Meegan and Coppa families. I am humbled to be able to continue this tradition. Perhaps this is a little clearer on the Meegan side. I am the grandson of Joseph B. Meegan, co-founder of The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council. This is by and large the most prominent example of service among members of the amalgamated Meegan and Coppa families, but it is by no means the only example. I am also the grandson of the first Italian-American Eagle Scout in Rhode Island; man that was a corpsman (read doctor/medic for those unfamiliar with the terminology) with the United States Navy/Marines. These are, of course, only brief and pointed examples.
I am also the son of a Rotarian and a teacher. On the Rotarian side, I have a legacy of service that is also difficult to match. This includes living, while in college, at the Big Brother’s house, an orphanage for kids to sending boxes of clothes, and supplies to the Philippines to support yet another orphanage in an extraordinarily impoverished country.
The legacy of service also includes aunts, and uncles, and cousins. It includes siblings. The Meegan-Coppa amalgamation has served in AmeriCorps, the Army, the Navy, the Merchant Marines, and has worked with and for the United States State Department. It includes service on the community level through organizations such as scouting, as well.
Another aspect is that good, old Irish Catholic guilt. We all have it, it is just a bit more prominent in some. This cannot be discounted as a motivating factor in committing to Peace Corps service. Thought, it was concertedly secular Peace Corps service I decided upon, as I am not comfortable with evangelization and proselytizing, event after eight years of Catholic school. Perhaps it is just part of that whole “actions speak louder than words” thing, or perhaps because evangelization, to me, seems to employ a forced “Westernization” approach (I’m sure, of course, this comment will draw contention).
However, I should also admit, that my intentions have never been entirely altruistic. I am extraordinarily curious about this big beautiful world we live in, and I want the opportunity to explore it. Peace Corps service is allowing me this opportunity to see the world, not as it appears, but as it is, as T.S. Eliot wrote, “. . . the first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it….” Wanderlust can strike deep, and is not satisfied just be listening to Hank Williams sing “Ramblin’ Man,” or reading travelogues. At some point, while in college, it became necessary for me to join “the legion of the lost ones, the cohort of the damned,/ the brethren in their sorrow overseas,” though this is an entirely too dramatic example.
So, perhaps I have cleared things up, and perhaps I have just further obfuscated your understand of me, and my motivations. Either way, I don’t know, because, as I mentioned previously, I have no time or patience to proofread these, so I’m going with my rough draft.
All the Best, and as always Go Friars,

Peter Davidovich Meegan