my real heros in life are two fictional characters. Atticus Finch and Jean Luc Picard. internalized dork saturation level confirmed and rising. idsl > 90%.
So anyway, I think that if picard were real and living today, he would have totally joined the peace corps and not the navy. Starfleet is way more like the peace corps, or at least an idealized form of the concept of an armed service. I think an ethic of cooperation is lacking in our executive policy regarding use of the army, navy, marines, etc... I mean, they still do a lot of infrastructure work, but it's all based strategic consideration and not humanitarian.
Today, the third world is developed by first world corporations payed by world bank loans (comprised to a great extent by american tax payer dollars (i think around 17% of the world banks yearly budget is from the US)).

I was almost accepted into west point when i was 18. I failed a medical exam for asthma so they told me I couldn't get in... Maybe it was really because of my lack of regard for the rules of capitalization. Oh well...

this has all bee really vague, but i'm tired and I don't want to spend a thousand words going into detail. I'm just going to imagine that my imaginary role-models would be proud of me.