"Citizen service is the main way we recognize that we are responsible for one another."
President Bill Clinton, April 5, 1997

"I swear -- by my life and my love of it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine"
-- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

ON APRIL 27, 1997, President Clinton will preside over the opening of the "Presidents' Summit for America's Future" in Philadelphia. The Summit's stated mission "is nothing less than to spark a renewed national sense of obligation, a new sense of duty, a new season of service." Clinton will be joined in what Summit organizers call "an historic call to action" by President Bush, Vice President Gore, and retired General Colin Powell.
The Ayn Rand Institute adamantly rejects this "call to action." We maintain that the Presidents' Summit is an inversion of the principles on which this nation was established. Further, we hold that this call to "citizen service" is premised on a philosophic foundation -- the foundation of self-sacrificial servitude -- that has created the very problems the Summit purports to remedy.
Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, advocates rational egoism as the proper basis for human action. No man is a means to an end; every man is an end in himself. No man can live for the sake of another -- nor, therefore, should he demand that any other man live for his sake. We hold that the pursuit of self-interest is the only moral code of behavior conducive to human life. Conversely, altruism -- the doctrine of living for others and placing others above oneself -- is immoral, and inexorably leads to disaster. It leads to the subordination of the individual to the collective, which translates into: the subjugation of man by the state. The widespread acceptance of altruism in this century has spawned statist policies that have shackled productive individuals, confiscated and redistributed their wealth, and transformed need into a moral "entitlement."
By symbolically convening their Summit at Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the advocates of citizen service want us to believe that self-sacrifice is a time-honored "American way" of solving our problems. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Founding Fathers, assembled in Independence Hall more than two centuries ago, envisioned a nation animated by the principle of individual rights -- a nation in which each man has the inalienable right to his life, his liberty, and the pursuit of his happiness. We maintain that the ideas of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are surely more representative of the "American way" than are those of Bill Clinton or George Bush.
The President's desire to inflict the doctrine of altruistic service on America's youth is particularly alarming. In his April 5, 1997, radio address, Clinton declared:

The President's "challenge" represents a potentially devastating assault on young people -- attacking their liberties just as they begin planning their lives and their own pursuit of happiness.
However, there is an alternative to such sacrificial ideas. As we conclude in our policy statement, "The Immorality of the Summit on Volunteerism,"
We have a right to the pursuit of our own happiness. No individual belongs to another. No individual has the right to one minute of another person's life.
The only proper response is to declare oneself a "conscientious objector" to the President's "call to action." In the petition which follows, the Ayn Rand Institute invites you to join us in doing just that.

WHEREAS, the President of the United States, and other proponents of the April 1997 "Presidents' Summit for America's Future," have asserted that "citizen service" is a noble duty consonant with fundamental American values; and

WHEREAS, in fact the values expressed by America's Founders in the Declaration of Independence do not call upon Americans to sacrifice themselves to others, or others to themselves, but instead recognize every individual's right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; and

WHEREAS, the ideas advanced by the Founders are proper to man's life, while the aims of the Summit are antithetical to the requirements of human life and happiness; and

WHEREAS, it is likely that the Summit will lead to further campaigns to compel community service, particularly against young people -- and that this is a blatant threat to the liberties of these individuals;

I HEREBY DECLARE THAT:
My life is my own. I possess the right to pursue my own happiness. I live by producing the values -- material and spiritual -- that fuel my life. My dealings with others are based on shared values and voluntary trade, not on sacrifice and servitude. I do not recognize any man's right to one minute of my life, nor do I assert any claim on the lives of others.
I regard the "Presidents' Summit" as an affront to my convictions and values and a potential threat to my life and liberty.
I therefore reject the altruistic goals of the Presidents' Summit, and declare myself a "conscientious objector" to the Summit and its mission to "spark a renewed national sense of obligation, a new sense of duty [and] a season of service."

Thank you for your interest in signing our petition, however, we have finished collecting names and have forwarded the petition to President Clinton. We will be publishing details on this site as they become available.