Department of Peace

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The Department of Peace and Non-violence is a proposed cabinet-level department of the executive branch of the U.S. government. Founding father Benjamin Rush proposed a Peace Department for the first U.S. cabinet, under George Washington, but a more recent proposal came from Rep. Dennis Kucinich in 2001 and formed a part of Kucinich's Presidential campaign platform in 2004 and 2008. A bill for this purpose, H.R. 3760, was introduced in the House of Representatives on September 14, 2005. It was re-introduced as H.R. 808 on February 5, 2007 and 65 co-sponsors quickly signed on. In July, 2008, the first Republican Co-sponsor, Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) signed on.

The Peace Alliance and the Student Peace Alliance organization supports the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence. It is an independent grassroots political movement that operates autonomously. The ongoing movement is supported by Kucinich and the author and popular motivational speaker Marianne Williamson, as well as an increasing list of celebrities such as Walter Cronkite, Joaquin Phoenix, Frances Fisher and Willie Nelson. This movement actively lobbies for the endorsements of congressional leaders and is active in soliciting and receiving a growing list of bipartisan endorsements from city councils such as Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus (Ohio) and Los Angeles. It has local grassroots chapters in over 264 congressional districts.[1]

Contents

[edit] Anti-violence versus pro-peace

The as-drafted 2007 HR 808 language includes a number of examples focusing the proposed Department of Peace's efforts on anti-war and anti-violence efforts rather than purely pro-peace initiatives, which, according to Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love, are strongly opposed concepts:

"Several years ago I was at a cocktail party where I got into a very heated debate about American foreign policy. Later that night, I had a kind of waking dream. A gentleman appeared to me and said, "Excuse me, Miss Williamson, but we thought we should tell you: In the cosmic roll call, you are considered a hawk, not a dove." I was incensed. "No way," I said indignantly. "I'm totally for peace. I'm a dove all the way." "I'm afraid not," he said. "I'm looking on our charts, and it says very clearly right here: Marianne Williamson, warmonger. You're at war with Ronald Reagan, Caspar Weinberger, the CIA, in fact the entire American defense establishment. No, I'm sorry. You're definitely a hawk." I saw of course that he was right. I had just as many missiles in my head as Ronald Reagan had in his. I thought it was wrong for him to judge communists, but I thought it was okay for me to judge him. Why? Because I was right, of course! I spent years as an angry left-winger before I realized that an angry generation can't bring peace."

But history shows pro-peace efforts reach and stir only the chorus. Specific wars must be specifically opposed to be prevented or ended.

Example anti-violence or anti-war language from HR 808 includes:

  • The formal title is the "Department of Peace and Nonviolence"
  • The department is partly designed to "work to...divert from armed conflict"
  • The department is to:
    • "…monitor and analyze causative principles of conflict"
    • "…develop policies that address domestic violence, including spousal abuse, child abuse, and mistreatment of the elderly"
    • "…develop policies to address violence against animals"
    • "…develop new approaches for dealing with the implements of violence, including gun-related violence and the overwhelming presence of handguns"
    • "…develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school violence, gangs, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations disputes"
    • "…advise the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on all matters relating to national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict"
    • "…help with the enforcement of international arms embargoes"
    • "…submit to the President recommendations for reductions in weapons of mass destruction"
    • "…make annual reports to the President on the sale of arms from the United States to other nations"
    • "…study the role of the media in the escalation and de-escalation of conflict"
  • Proposed additional positions include: "Assistant Secretary for Arms Control and Disarmament"
  • Proposed transfers include: "Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control, and the International Security Affairs of the Department of State"[2]

[edit] Provisions of the Kucinich Bill

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence legislation to Congress in July 2001, two months before the September 11 attacks. Kucinich has reintroduced the legislation every 2 years since. The bill currently has 70 cosponsors. Some of the numerous organizations endorsing the legislation include Amnesty International and the National Organization for Women.

This bill includes several additional proposed mandates which would go beyond the existing mandates of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Some highlights among the areas of proposed additional responsibility include:

  • Teach violence prevention, conflict resolution skills and mediation to America's school children in classrooms as an elective or requirement, providing them with the communication tools they need to express themselves beginning in elementary school through high school.
  • Provide violence prevention programs addressing domestic violence, gang violence, drug and alcohol related violence, and the like.
  • To effectively treat and dismantle gang psychology.
  • To rehabilitate the prison population.
  • To build peace making efforts among conflicting cultures both here and abroad.
  • To support our military with complementary approaches to ending violence.
  • Monitoring of all domestic arms production, including non-military arms, conventional military arms, and of weapons of mass destruction.
  • Making regular recommendations to the US President for various arms reductions strategies.
  • Assumption of a more proactive level of involvement in the establishment of international dialogues for international conflict resolution (as a cabinet level department).
  • Establishment of a US Peace Academy, which among other things would train international peace-keepers.
  • Development of an educational media program to promote non-violence in the domestic media.
  • Monitoring of human rights, both domestically and abroad.
  • Making regular recommendations to the President for the maintenance and improvement of these human rights.
  • Receiving a timely mandatory advance consultation from the Secretaries of State, and of Defense, prior to any engagement of US troops in any armed conflict with any other nation.
  • Establishment of a national Peace Day.
  • Participation by the Secretary of Peace as a member of the National Security Council.
  • Expansion of the national Sister City program.
  • Significant expansion of current Institute of Peace program involvement in educational affairs, in areas such as:
  1. Drug rehabilitation,
  2. Policy reviews concerning crime prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation,
  3. Implementation of violence prevention counseling programs and peer mediation programs in schools,
  • Also, making recommendations regarding:
  1. Battered women's rights,
  2. Animal rights,
  • Various other "peace related areas of responsibility".

Proposed funding for a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence would initially come from a budget that is defined by the violence-prevention bill as, "at least 1 percent of the proposed federal discretionary budget, FY 2008 of which 53% is already allocated to the Department of Defense (budget)". Whether or not the chairman of the US Institute of Peace would be promoted to a cabinet level position, or whether an entirely new position would be created, is not addressed by this bill.

Kucinich continues to actively promote and lobby for this legislation.

The Peace Alliance is the National Organization which is spearheading the passage of the legislation.

[edit] Previous Proposals

Senator Matthew Neely of West Virginia introduced the first Department of Peace bill in 1935, 1937 and 1939.[3] In the 1940s, Senators Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin and Karl Mundt of South Dakota, and Representatives Louis Ludlow of Indiana, Everett Dirksen of Illinois, and Jennings Randolph of West Virginia each introduced bills for peace departments or agencies.[4] Senator Hubert Humphrey of MInnesota introduced a bill establishing a National Peace Agency in February, 1960. According to one political scientist, in the years 1955-1968 at least 85 bills were introduced in the U.S. Congress that called for creation of a Department of Peace. None of these proposals were forwarded out of committee for debate or vote on the floor of the houses of Congress.[5]

In the 91st Congress, 1st session (1969), Senator Vance Hartke, Democrat of Indiana, introduced a S. 953, "The Peace Act," to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace. The 14 Senate co-sponsors included Birch Bayh (D-IN), Robert Byrd, (D-WV), Alan Cranston (D-CA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Edmund Muskie (D-ME). [6] The identical bill was offered in the House of Representatives by Seymour Halpern, Republican of New York, and cosponsored by 67 others including Democrats Ed Koch of New York, Donald Fraser of Minnesota, and Abner Mikva of Illinois, as well as Republican Paul McCloskey of California. [7] The Peace Act called for the a new department to develop "plans, policies and programs designed to foster peace," coordinate all U.S. government actiavites affecting "the preservation or promotion of peace," to cooperate with other governments in planning for peaceful conflict resolution, and promote the exchange of ideas between private parties in the U.S. and other countries. [8] The bill further provided for establishment of an International Peace Institute that would train citizens for service, a Peace by Investment Corporation, and the transfer of agencies such as the Peace Corps, Agency for International Development, and the International Agricultural Development Service, to the new Department. [9] The bills received popular support from anti-war groups, Catholic and Baptist publications, author Norman Cousins, and others. [10]

[edit] Fiction

The novel 1988 (a fictional work about the upcoming 1988 presidential election published in 1985) by then-Governor of Colorado Richard Lamm, includes a very similar proposal where the third-party presidential candidate in the novel proposes a cabinet-level Agency for U.S. Peace and Conflict Resolution with a Secretary of Peace who could challenge the Secretary of Defense when necessary.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Get Active and Volunteer". The Peace Alliance. http://www.thepeacealliance.org/organize/. Retrieved on 2007-10-24. 
  2. ^ "H.R. 808: Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act". 2007. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-808. Retrieved on 2008-03-06. 
  3. ^ Schuman, Frederick L. Why a Department of Peace. Beverly Hills: Another Mother for Peace, 1969. OCLC 339785
  4. ^ Schuman, 1969.
  5. ^ Schuman, 1969.
  6. ^ Schuman, 1969.
  7. ^ Schuman, 1969.
  8. ^ Schuman, 1969.
  9. ^ Schuman, 1969.
  10. ^ Schuman, 1969.

[edit] External links

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