I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
U.S. General and our 34th President (1890-1969)
The Time is Now
On September 22, 2005, Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) introduced the Department of Peace legislation into the U.S. Senate (S. 1756) calling for an elevation of the Regan-established “Institute of Peace” to a Cabinet-level position. The primary function of the United States Department of Peace will be to research, articulate and facilitate nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflict. The current Bill is H.R. 808.
Benefits of a Department of Peacebuilding
Internationally, the Department of Peacebuilding will:
- Advise the President, Secretaries of Defense and State, and others on root causes of violence.
- Support the military by providing cultural, ethnic and psychological insightful information, education and technology.
- Offer practical skills (conflict resolution and the like) and administer training and support of civilian peacekeepers to participate in multinational nonviolent peace forces.
Domestically, the Department of Peacebuilding will:
- Develop field-tested educational programs promoting conflict-resolution and peer mediation among school-age children.
- Provide violence-prevention programs addressing domestic violence, gang violence, drug and alcohol-related violence.
- Provide much-needed assistance for the efforts of city, county and state governments in coordinating existing programs in their own communities as well as programs newly developed and provided by the Department of Peace.
A U.S. Peace Academy
The Department of Peacebuilding will create and administer a U.S. Peace Academy acting as a sister organization to the U.S. Military Academy.
- The Academy will research and teach the most cutting-edge techniques for the amelioration of violence among domestic and international populations.
- The Peace Academy will provide assistance to the military in international conflict-resolution.
The Urgent Need for a Department of Peacebuilding
International Violence
- During the course of the 20th century, more than 100,000,000 people perished in wars.
- Since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars began in 2003, there have been 6,717 American deaths, 50,897 American wounded*, and well over 500,000 Iraqi and Afghanistan deaths.**
Domestic Violence
- In the U.S., youth homicide rates are more than 10 times that of other leading industrialized nations.
- Domestic violence is the single greatest cause of injury to women.
- Criminal and domestic violence places intense financial pressure on city, county and state budgets.
- One in three school students say they have been in a physical fight in the past year, and one in eight of those students required medical attention for their injuries.
- Of children in sixth through tenth grade, more than 3.2 million – nearly one in six – are victims of bullying each year, while 3.7 million bully other children.
- Seventeen percent of high school girls have been abused physically; twelve percent of high school girls have been abused sexually.
Grassroots Efforts Support The Department Of Peace
Activist groups exist in 43 states and over 250 Congressional Districts!
Contact
The Peace Alliance
Campaigning for a U.S. Department of Peace
PO Box 3259
Center Line, MI 48015
Tel: (586) 754-8105
Fax: (586) 754-8106
Email: info@ThePeaceAlliance.org
