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Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will both be appearing at a forum on post-9/11 public service and civic engagement in New York City on the evening of September 11th.

The Forum is being organized by a new nationwide coalition called ServiceNation. According to the press release from Time magazine, which is cosponsoring the event with Be The Change, Inc., City Year, Civic Enterprises and Points of Light:

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will discuss in depth their views on service and civic engagement in the post-9/11 world during a primetime forum on the evening of September 11 in New York City.

The Forum is being staged by ServiceNation, a dynamic new coalition of 110 organizations that has a collective reach of some 100 million Americans and is dedicated to strengthening our democracy and solving problems through civic engagement and service. It will be the opening event of the bipartisan, Sept. 11-12, ServiceNation summit, which will launch a one year grassroots campaign to expand voluntary community and national service opportunities for all Americans; use proven service strategies to tackle some of America’s most chronic social challenges; and call on all Americans to make service a bedrock ideal in our democracy

At the Forum, called “A Nation Of Service,” Senators McCain and Obama will appear on stage separately to discuss their respective visions for the role of service in America’s future. Richard Stengel, Managing Editor of TIME, will moderate, and the event will be open to all broadcast networks.

I think this will be a very interesting evening with a lot of discussion of the role and responsibilities of citizens in the 21st Century. It should also help put that issue on the forefront of presidential campaign for at least a night and probably longer into the campaign. I hope that citizen preparedness will be featured as a significant way that Americans can get involved and engaged. I hope to attend the Forum and the Summit, and I will report on the blog about it.