A Long Way To A Thank You

The question came up this week, is it Citizen Corps or Citizens Corps? In response to that question, the comment was made, "We represent all citizens, not just one".

From the printed material, it becomes clear that the answer is Citizen Corps, just look at http://www.citizencorps.com/

If we look at remarks from President Bush, in a press release from the Office of the Press Secretary, we do see "Remarks by the President on Citizens Corps". Are we saying that someone in the President's office made a mistake? No!

If we look at the definitions (dictionary.com) for citizen, we see "A person...", "A resident...", "A civilian..." and for corps, we see "a group of people...", "a team...".

But does it matter? If we look at Citizen Corps, we are individuals who are a part of a group or team, such as a Neighborhood Watch Team, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Team.

People often get bogged down in administrative activities and forget the core values of an organization - an organization based on individual volunteers who make up the Citizen Corps. While this might seem like an off the wall discussion, try having it and see what discussion comes out of it.

In Fairfax County, this was a very successful America's Safe Schools Week. We would like to thank each individual "citizen" - students, teachers, administrators, instructors, volunteers who are part of our "corps" - team and helping keep our schools safe.