HR-808 U.S. Department of Peace Act moved into a powerful sub-committee!

[G_j]

Saturday, August 01, 2009

IT MOVED!!!!!!!!!!!
It moved on July 22nd, for the first time in years.

HR-808 U.S. Department of Peace Act moved into a powerful sub-..committee!!!
"Jul 22nd Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security."

link to the BILL below. www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/658/23/

After reading the bill, support it by contacting your Member of Congress through
www.ThePeaceAlliance.org

There are 4 Department of Peace cosponsors in this committee. For a bill to move on the road to law, it goes through committees for discussion and then is presented to the floor for a VOTE.

Your help is needed. Please join www.ThePeaceAlliance.org
today.

We need you.


******************
******************

http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=wc-deptpeace



Walter Cronkite: A Department Of Peace?

By Walter Cronkite

With this nation embroiled in what threatens to be an interminable "War on Terrorism," an idea put forward last year by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has, for me, considerable appeal. Kucinich, who was the one candidate in the Democratic primaries to unfailingly promote the party's traditional Franklin Roosevelt liberalism, proposed the establishment of a Department of Peace.

<snip>

Wouldn't it have been an advantage in the run-up to the Iraq War to have had a cabinet officer whose department was responsible for training U.S. personnel in human rights, conflict resolution, reconstruction and the detailed planning necessary to restoring a durable peace; in short, to do what was so disastrously absent when our forces rolled into Baghdad?

Kucinich's bill is more elaborate and specific than I can spell out here. Right now it is a long way from realization, with only a few dozen congressional sponsors. It needs a lot more to move another step along the legislative process.

Actually, there is an urgency to its adoption. In this dangerous world, where the strength of the United States is needed to keep the peace, we need a visible manifestation of our intention to play that role, without the arrogance that cost us friends and allies among the nations and peoples of the world.

But no matter how far off it might be, it is an idea that deserves our attention. We can hope that Kucinich and those who are pioneers in supporting his bill stay the course and redouble their efforts.

[LWolf]

1. That's great news! nt

[G_j]

3. thanks LWolf

at least this is now out of neg-rec territory.
:cry:

[LWolf]

4. Well, peace is always suspect,

especially when we focus on building it locally by addressing local needs.

:(

[anonymous171]

2. Wow sounds more like the Department of Benign Imperialism to me.

[LWolf]

5. The department of peace, as

written by Kucinich, includes things like:

Teaching 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.

Providing violence prevention programs addressing domestic violence, gang violence, drug and alcohol related violence, and the like.

Effectively treating and dismantling gang psychology.

Rehabilitating the prison population.

Building peace making efforts among conflicting cultures both here and abroad.

Those things don't build empire; they support our communities at home.

Unlike the use of the department of "defense" to interfere with other nations abroad.