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Make Sense. Make Peace. Make History
In the earliest years of our nation’s history, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson called for the development of a national Peace Academy where diplomats, politicians, military experts and citizens could be trained in peace tactics. Benjamin Rush, another signer of the Declaration of Independence, called for a Department of Peace as part of the cabinet structure.
Bills for the development of a Department of Peace have been introduced several times in the course of this nation’s history. In the late 1960s, Sen.Van Hartke of Indiana presented a bill sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans to both the House and the Senate that called for a U.S. Department of Peace. Although the bill was changed almost beyond recognition, it did result in the Reagan Administration founding the Institute for Peace, an arm of the State Department that researches and trains people in conflict resolution to this day. On July 11, 2001, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced HR 2459 which did not make it past the House.
Enter the Peace Alliance. Founded in 2001 by Marianne Williamson, the organization started as the Global Renaissance Alliance and gradually evolved into the Peace Alliance and the Peace Alliance Foundation, 501C4 and 501C3 non-profit organizations which handle lobbying and research, education and awareness outreach respectively. Currently active in 43 states and in over 245 congressional districts nationwide, the Peace Alliance is also part of an international group interested in developing departments of peace in governments worldwide
“The Peace Alliance’s mission is to advocate for legislation that supports a culture of peace,” says Dot Maver, executive director of the Peace Alliance. “What we are calling for now is the realization that we need a voice at the cabinet level in the United States that clearly presents those options for the resolution of conflict non-violently, based on the research and technology currently available.”
Dot Maver
The Alliance is heavily involved training activists to lobby for the next bill mandating the development of a formal cabinet level Department of Peace, which will be introduced by Kucinich on September 14 th.
The Alliance has also organized a Department of Peace Conference, scheduled to be held in Washington D.C. Sept 10-12 at the L’Enfant Hotel. At the conference, hundreds of activists from around the country, congressional district team leaders and state coordinators will gather to discuss the legislation, as well as solutions that already exist during two panels Saturday and Sunday.
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On Monday, Walter Cronkite and Rep. Kocinich are scheduled to talk about a culture of peace and the potentials of a Dept of Peace at the Reagan Center. Also participating at the conference will be peace activist and singer/songwriter Judy Collins, Ambassador John McDonald, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Patch Adams, Marianne Williamson and many more.
On September 13th the west lawn of the Capital Building has been reserved by the Communities of Peace for a meeting and a display of the half-mile long children’s peace quilt, created by children calling for peace. On the 14 th the bill will be reintroduced and there will be a briefing that afternoon.
The Children's Peace Quilt. Click image for larger view.
“It will go into committee and in order to come to the floor it would have to go through a hearing and get to the point where there would be enough support,” says Maver. “So that’s why we’re lobbying. Right now there are 54 co-sponsors, members of the House of Representatives. And we need to get that number way up there over 200 to get that to a vote.”
Maver says the main objection lobbyists have encountered to date is that people think that a Peace Department would be just another bureaucracy that replicates the current State Department office.
“It’s so clear that it doesn’t,” Maver says. “The State Department does such a good job working state to state or country to country and making certain that our present administration policies are implemented and followed through according to our Constitution. This Department of Peace calls for a look at the non-violent resolution of conflict internationally, but also there’s a big focus domestically. So much of the violence in this country is domestic violence; violence in schools,
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House Bill HR 1673 to be presented September 14, 2005
(Sections 6-8 of the Bill’s introduction)
It is the sacred duty of the people of the United States to receive the living truths of our founding documents and to think anew to develop institutions that permit the unfolding of the highest moral principles in this Nation and around the world . (7) During the course of the 20th century, more than 100,000,000 people perished in wars, and now, at the dawn of the 21st century, violence seems to be an overarching theme in the world, encompassing personal, group, national, and international conflict, extending to the production of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction which have been developed for use on land, air, sea, and in space.
(8) Such conflict is often taken as a reflection of the human condition without questioning whether the structures of thought, word, and deed which the people of the United States have inherited are any longer sufficient for the maintenance, growth, and survival of the United States and the world.
To read the bill in its entirety: thepeacealliance.org/
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