UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF PEACE

The 'United States Department of Peace and Non-violence' is a proposed cabinet-level department of the executive branch of the U.S. government. The original idea of a Peace Department in the United States dates back to the administration of George Washington, but has been most recently reinitiated by Rep. Dennis Kucinich beginning in 2001 and formed a part of Kucinich's presidential campaign platform in 2004. A bill for this purpose, HR 3760, was previously introduced in the House of Representatives on September 14 2005. It has most recently been re-introduced via HR 808 on February 5, 2007 and 65 co-sponsors have since quickly signed on.
The The Peace Alliance organization supports the creation a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence. It is an independent grassroots political movement that operates autonomously and that has continued to gain momentum. The ongoing movement is supported by Kucinich and the author and popular motivational speaker Marianne Williamson. This movement actively lobbies for the endorsements of congressional leaders. It has local grassroot chapters in over 267 congressional districts.

Contents

The Kucinich proposal

Similar proposals in history

In fiction

See also

References

External links

The Kucinich proposal

In July 2001, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence legislation to Congress though it is unclear how similar his version of a Department of Peace and Non-violence would be to that of the founding fathers. The September 11 attacks several months later put the idea on hold.
Kucinich proposed a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence again (House Resolution 1673) in April 2003; the legislation attracted 75 co-sponsors and is endorsed by groups including Amnesty International and the National Organization for Women.
This bill includes several additional proposed mandates which would go beyond the existing mandates of the US 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:
# Drug rehabilitation,
# Policy reviews concerning crime prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation,
# Implementation of violence prevention counseling programs and peer mediation programs in schools,

★ Also, making recommendations regarding:
# Battered women's rights,
# 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.
Kucinich has also stated if he could pick anyone to head this department he would pick Jimmy Carter.

Similar proposals in history

The idea for the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence can be traced back to debates by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. George Washington declared in 1783 in his “Sentiments on a Peace Establishment” that “a large Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country”.[1] An essay on the establishment of a peace organization was written in 1792 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, a physician, educator, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. His proposal called for the establishment of a "Peace Office" which was to be on equal footing with the "War Office". It saw an urgent need for the establishment of "an office for promoting and preserving perpetual peace in our country" in order to maintain the greater welfare of "these United States." But it also called for free schools for youth "carefully instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in the doctrines of a religion of some kind", distributing free Bibles at public expense, and putting a sign over the door of the War Department proclaiming "An office for butchering the human species".^[1]

In 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.

See also

★ Peace

★ Nonviolence

★ Mark Dayton

★ Dennis Kucinich

★ Marianne Williamson

★ United States Institute of Peace

★ Ministry of Peace

★ Dot Maver, Executive Director of The Peace Alliance

References

1. "A Plan of a Peace-Office for the United States" Retrieved on March 24, 2007

External links

★ Establish a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence - The Peace Alliance Campaign

★ Text of House Resolution 808: To establish a Department of Peace and Nonviolence

★ The Propeace community

★ U.S. Department of Peace on MySpace

★ Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace Los Angeles

★ Florida Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence

★ Maryland State campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace

★ Massachusetts Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace

★ International People's Initiative for Departments of Peace

★ NPR: Peace Department Proposal Rattles Small Town

★ Senator Mark Dayton's Press Release

★ United States Institute of Peace Website

★ Representative Dennis Kucinich's Personal Site Discussing this Legislation