America has lost her moral compass in the world. In the face of Hidatha, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, people around the world are calling on the United States to cease and desist in Iraq. We are facing a grave moral crisis in this country. We have lost our way and it is time for us to return to the great democratic principles that are the true spirit of this nation.
It is time for us as a nation to face up to the responsibilities we have. We must stop making war on people who have not attacked us. We must apologize to those we have harmed and make restitution and we must work internationally towards peace.
That is why I am supporting legislation to establish a Federal Level Department of Peace and Nonviolence. The primary function of a United States Department of Peace will be to research, articulate and facilitate nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflict.
The Department of Peace will facilitate the most cutting edge ways to wage peace. From nonviolent communication skills, to conflict resolution techniques and cultural relationship building, the Department of Peace will employ proven and effective strategies for diminishing violence in our country and in our world.
As a member of the President's cabinet, the Secretary of Peace will provide the President; the State Department; the Departments of Defense, Education and Justice with greatly expanded problem solving options. The Department of Peace will also provide support for state and local government to address issues of domestic violence.
The Department of Peace would research and analyze foreign policy and recommend to the President ways to address the root causes of war. A Peace Academy, on par with the Military Academies, would train civilian peacekeepers and the military in the latest nonviolent conflict resolution techniques and approaches. The Department would also provide expert advice to the President when diffusing or dealing with international crises.
Domestically, the Department would be responsible for developing new policies that address issues such as child abuse, domestic violence, gang violence, and cultural and racial violence. Statistics reveal that each year, medical expenses from domestic violence alone total at least $3 to $5 billion. Businesses forfeit another $100 million in lost wages, sick leave, absenteeism and non-productivity due to domestic violence. Teaching violence prevention and mediation to America's school children is just one of the many ways a U.S. Department of Peace would reduce violence in our homes and schools.
The idea of a Department of Peace is not new. In fact it dates back to 1792 and it has been proposed numerous times over the course of this nation's history. Currently, no other federal agency or department looks at the root causes of violence or provides the President with counsel. There is an urgent need for a Department of Peace. Nuclear proliferation creates the critical need to interrupt the current cycles of violence internationally and domestically, criminal and domestic violence places intense financial pressures on the city, county and state government.
We need a Department of Peace in order to provide new, proactive approaches to violence reduction both domestically and internationally. Our traditional political problem solving methods focus primarily on addressing symptoms of violence, such as imprisonment for offenders and engagement in armed conflict.
The United States should be as effective in addressing the sources of violence as we are in addressing its symptoms. A Department of Peace will reduce international and domestic violence, it will help to build peace making efforts among conflicting communities both here and abroad and it will support our military with complementary approaches to ending violence.
Peace belongs to all of us, so let's make it part of every aspect of our lives, including how we think, how we act, and how we govern.
My name is Chris Lugo and I am a candidate for the US Senate seat in Tennessee. I am running as a progressive because I believe that the time has come to end the war in Iraq, ensure that all Americans have access to affordable, quality health care and to restore common sense and decency to our national dialogue. For far too long we have neglected the needs of the poor in America, allowing hundreds of thousands in Tennessee to go without healthcare and millions nationally. For far too long we have let our education system be a secondary priority to the military industrial complex.
As a result of these misguided funding priorities we have a graduation rate in Tennessee of only about 60% statewide for high school students and only about one quarter of all Tennesseans graduate from college. We must take solid steps to ensure that all Americans have safe and affordable housing, that we live in a clear and healthy environment, and that we take steps to address the deep divisions of inequity that still persist in our society.
I believe in the American dream and I believe that all Americans deserve the opportunity to have a rich and meaningful life, but the only way to ensure that these priorities are addressed is to make certain that our government makes this a priority, that our elected representatives make peace and social justice a priority on a national scale.
We are at a crossroads in history, and Tennessee faces a choice which we all face. Do we choose to continue down the path of abandonment, of hopelessness and fear or do we choose to embrace the compassionate, hopeful elements of our national identity? I for one, choose to hope. I believe that the government is here to serve the people and our elected leaders are here to serve you.
Peace is what happens when the war's over, how about some truth in advertising, there? And, what's with the military relying on any foreign vendors or manufacturers for US war materiel, since we're on the subject?
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truthtruffle (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 94 comments)
on Friday, March 14, 2008 at 1:06:22 PM
Dennis talked at length about the need for a dept of peace. Walter Cronkite and Marriane Williamson were involved with him in that proposal. It's a damn shame that nobody listened. But the big money people, the greedy bastards, never gave Dennis a chance because, of all of the candidates, he was the only one telling the truth. We can't have that, can we? Noooooo!
How do these people get the voters to vote against their own interests? I have asked that question so many times and nobody seems to have an answer. In this election, when it finally takes place, nothing will change!!! There will be no end to the war, in fact the criminals in the White House are rattling the swords in Iran's direction, no doubt to stop the election from happening so that they may stay in their criminal places.
Wake up, America. Dennis talked about the need for a not for profit health care plan. That won't happen. Instead, according to Hillary, the government will force people who can't afford it to purchase insurance which will fill the coffers of the evil companies who are making money over our sick bodies.
Unless the few members of Congress are able to rustle up some courage in the other members of Congress, we will not see the impeachment of the evil members of this administration and see them jailed. For that's where they should be, in jail with the other criminals.
Why can't anybody see that after all of the shooting and maiming is over, the people have to talk and make an end to the killing. Why can't that happen first?
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Caronome (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 200 comments)
on Friday, March 14, 2008 at 1:30:18 PM
With all due respect your idea for a Dept. of Peace is pie in the sky fantasy. It's hard to know where to start.
First, we can start with the fact that the government usually ends up causing the opposite of what it sets out to do. The war on drugs has produced more drug use, the war on terror is producing more terrorists, government education is educating less, I could go on & on, but you get the idea. The problem is that a successful government program loses it's reason to be. With the government failure, not success, is rewarded with more funding. The bureaucrats have every incentive to make sure the crisis they're supposed to be dealing with continues & worsens.
Second, & related to the above, is the pork problem. Politicians love to have expensive programs around to pay off special interests with. Once there's a peace industry riding the Dept. of Peace gravy train you'd better believe their lobby will press for more & more money being spent on, you guessed it, peace.
Last, there's the nature of government. As G. Washington said:
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
The idea that the agency that we foolishly entrust to use force will be the one to stop the same is self-contradictory. Just as you don't send the arsonist to put out fires you don't send the government to stop violence.
The answer to the war & violence problem is less government, in other words less force. Starve the beast. No or less taxes, government departments, police, & military will go a lot further to achieving your goals than an Orwellian Dept. of Peace.
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Darren Wolfe (4 articles, 124 quicklinks, 78 diaries, 595 comments)
on Friday, March 14, 2008 at 3:54:51 PM
Thank you for speaking up and supporting the Department of Peace. I agree wholeheartedly. If the energy and resources were spent on keeping the peace that are spent on waging war, I believe we could live in a peaceful world. We've been quite "successful" at waging war. Why not wage peace? The way the world is now, as we see it, does not mean it cannot be any other way. We can choose the kind of world we want to have and make it happen.
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Reefee (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments)
on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 9:08:37 AM
