Department of Peace - Ideas for Change in America: A Memorial Day Salute

A Memorial Day Salute

Published May 25, 2009 @ 09:10AM PT

This Memorial Day, I'm choosing to honor those who died for our country by considering what we should be doing to make sure no one else need to die for our country ever again. A couple of things that come to mind:

Outlaw the concept of "Preemptive War"

Embrace the concept of "Preemptive Peace"

We need to stop funneling billions and billions of dollars year after year expanding our national capacity to create and then destroy our enemies while creating thousands upon thousands of Memorial Day honorees in the process. Instead, we should be using our financial and human resources, along with our communal creative energies, to identify those who would seek to harm us and work with them to proactively address their grievances and work to turn them into allies.

I know this may sound Utopian, but we do already possess the necessary technologies to make this work. Experts in international affairs know from experience what factors will create levels of desperation that will ultimately result in violent conflict - high infant mortality, lack of access to free markets, absence of democratic processes, for example. If we make investments in these situations to address the root causes and create lasting solutions to these problems, we will not have to send in the troops later as peacekeepers or invaders. I think we should give it a try, don't you?

This promising approach is not going to happen if we don't change the way our federal government is organized. We need a new structure that includes a Department of Peace that will work with the State and Defense departments to establish conditions that foster allies, not just project our national interests and exploit international relationships to our benefit. There is currently legislation in the House - H.R. 808 - to create a Department of Peace. If you are interested in getting involved in the national grassroots campaign to make this happen, contact the Peace Alliance at www.thepeacealliance.org, or on Change.org. You can also send a letter to your Representative at http://bit.ly/XpdqE and let them know you want their support for this legislation.

Let's not let the sacrifices of our brave servicemen and women be for nothing. Let's put our hard-won freedoms to work and create a better way for all.

Visit DoPeace

Comments

Such a powerful reminder of how we indeed "create and then destroy our enemies." It's not in the least utopian. It's practical to apply new technologies--even if they are social rather than physical--to better our lives and the lives of our children.

Posted by Wendy Greene on 05/25/2009 @ 09:54AM PT
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If everyone could grasp the concept that we are all interconnected in this life... that what we do to each other affects everyone. This includes organizational structures that are run by people. The basic tenent of reverence for all life will serve us all well. Taking of vow of nonviolence is also a good place to begin. It is amazing how precious life is when viewed from this place of connection. Killing becomes foreign; unacceptable. A Department of Peace in our government and in all governments would herald a new paradigm of thinking. I say YES to it.

Posted by Lynn Ellis on 05/25/2009 @ 10:09AM PT
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HR808 will become law not because of some president or senator saying yes, it will happen because the citizens wake up to the pain and loss of violence and ask, is there a better way to resolve conflict? The answer is a most resounding YES. Our vain attempts to be secure have left us exhausted, empty of resources, and questioning. The time is ripe for genuine weeping, empathy for ourselves and others, and a radical shift in our strategies for achieving security, health, and growth. The best memorial to our soldiers is to make the peace they so earnestly sought a sustainable process, so that their children and grandchildren need not suffer the hell of war.

Posted by David Hazen on 05/25/2009 @ 10:53AM PT
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It strikes me that there has been throughout history a prediliction among humanity to fight and use forceful means as a response to conflict and disagreement. It's the norm, you might say. To take a different approach and create a new norm requires a conscious realization that we are using the same old strategies (that don't really work) and a conscious effort to use other methods. We have to truly be conscious - that is, free from the automatic reactions enculturated within us, of doing it like everyone else, of doing it likes it's always been done - to truly want a more peaceful society. I think we also have to truly be conscious to want a Department of Peace and to do what it takes to manifest it. It is actually possible for enough of us to make this effort and to manifest a Department of Peace, for ourselves and this age and for the future that belongs to our children and grandchildren.

Posted by David Jenkins on 05/25/2009 @ 03:12PM PT
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This is so heartening to read. It is stuff I have thought, and talked about since I was a kid. I was always told I was being too idealistic, that I just didn't know the real world. I'm so glad that this movement is starting to get some traction. It seems so sane to have a Department of Peace - there has always been a Department of War (oh, I mean Defense).

Posted by Amanda Jennings on 05/25/2009 @ 07:33PM PT
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Hi Amanda. Thank goodness us idealists continue to shine our light on things. You are not alone. If you want to join in the movement, go to www.thepeacealliance and go to the map on the left hand side. Find your state and district and send a message. Welcome to the family of believers.

Posted by Lynn Ellis on 05/26/2009 @ 03:53AM PT
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This writer minds me of the Kellogg – Briand Pact. A 1928 treaty which denounced war as a legitimate means of foreign policy, forged by the U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg and the French Foreign Minister Briand and ultimately signed by 63 nations. It is still a blinding international treaty. Kellogg was a Minnesotan, like me or I probably wouldn’t even remember this from my college seminar on history between the world wars.

Look at the history of wars, you'll conclude we are doomed to live forever at each other’s throats. Dip into the long, rich heritage of trying to get along with each other and you'll feel encouraged. These stories deserve more telling on Memorial Day.BTW: Frank B. Kellogg was a Republican U.S. Senator and Secretary of State under the Calvin “the business of America is business” Coolidge. Great post, thanks.

Posted by Mary Jane LaVigne on 05/26/2009 @ 08:39AM PT
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Oops, that's binding treaty, not blinding treaty. Interesting slip since some have argued that it contributed to a blindness toward a rising threat.

Posted by Mary Jane LaVigne on 05/26/2009 @ 11:39AM PT
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People all over the world long to live in peace. Yet, most of us have felt that we could have little impact on the world situation. As citizens of the most powerful nation in the world, it is so important that we take a sand for peace and lobby for the creation of a Department of Peace. Isn't it bizarre to think that we even question the feasibility of a Department of Peace, yet accept that we have a war department.

There is a worldwide movement for peace - grassroots, people to people. It is the World March for Peace and Nonviolence from )ct 2 to Jan 2, 2010. Please check out the information on this website www.worldmarchusa.net
You can become involved in this if you want. I am coordinating activities in Massachusetts. Dennis Redmond is the U.S. coordinator. You can reach him through the website.
Please become involved in this event. You don't have to march to be involved.
Give peace a chance.

Posted by Mary Jan Greene on 05/27/2009 @ 08:09PM PT
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