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The Department of Peace
is legislation first introduced in 2003. It is the natural evolution
of thinking about the principles of peace and non-violence and applying
it to our society. It is a legislative bill that brings the values
of non-violence into the structure of American politics through a cabinet-level
Secretary of Peace and a staff who will promote the peace perspective.
Throughout all cabinet meetings a voice for peace will be present.
The programs encompassed
by the Department are both domestic and international. At the domestic
level this two-tiered process links community organizations that already
focus on violence prevention. This encourages coalitions of organizations
that seek to interrupt and redirect violence.
Included in the bill
is the transfer to the department of functions, assets, and personnel
include:
1. The
Peace Corps;
2. The
United States Institute of Peace;
3. The
Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security
Affairs of the Department of State;
4. The
Gang Resistance Education and Training Program of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms; and
5. The
Safe Futures program of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention of the Department of Justice.
Enacting this legislation
would both show the country’s change of thinking and allow it
to take root. On the domestic front the Department of Peace brings
the following:
ü Provides
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.
ü Teaches
violence prevention and mediation to America's school children.
ü Effectively treats and dismantles gang
psychology.
ü Rehabilitates the prison population.
ü Builds peace-making efforts among conflicting
cultures both here and abroad.
ü Supports our military with complementary
approaches to ending violence.
ü Gathers and coordinates information and
recommendations from America’s peace community.
ü The Department of Peace will create and
administer a U.S. Peace Academy, acting as a sister organization
to the U.S. Military Academy.
The Mt. Diablo Peace
and Justice Center has a natural stake in the Department of Peace.
Part of the domestic agenda is to tie together field-tested programs
on gun violence and domestic violence. The Center might offer or sponsor
educational programs based on Louise Diamond’s Peace
Book in conjunction with other community organizations, thereby
increasing community involvement in the Center.
Our programs of Youth
and the Military and the Art and Writing contest are in alignment with
the principles of the Department of Peace
The cities of Berkeley
and Oakland recently passed resolutions to support the Department of
Peace and did inform Representative Tauscher that they had done so.
The Center would like to follow suit and ask the cities of Pleasant
Hill and Walnut Creek to pass a Department of Peace Resolution as well.
This would also bring media coverage to the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice
Center.
Hearing people’s
objections to the Department of Peace is hearing their despair. They
don’t seem to think that anything peaceful or positive can be
enacted during the current administration’s leadership. Our success
depends on people knowing that their voice, their energy, their thoughts
help decide the results in our world.
