Department of Peace - Ideas for Change in America

What do you think is the most effective way to turn this idea into real policy? Add your suggestions here for how you think we should run an advocacy campaign to advance the idea – including the overall strategy, messaging, targets, and tactics.

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THIS IS A DEPARTMENT AND A CABINET POSITION thats being proposed. It will be funded, if at all,to achieve concrete goals within an institutional setting in support of US policy objectives.and thats very worth doing. The army is very good at making war.. with any luck theyre going to start admitting that making peace.. actually getting peoples who want to kill each other to change thier minds on that .. is not really thier gig. We need some folks to research plans that can be funded and executed to MAKE PEACE.. not just between nations but between peoples.. presumably in an occupation/peacekeeping setting. in ONE example.. some the Orange and the Green.. the opposing sides of the Irish "Troubles" that have somehow managed to still themselve long enough to make peace in Ireland a reality.. stopped off in Iraq and talked with faction leaders there about how to make peace with folks you dont like and dont trust.. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,503732,00.html that experience and those skills and those lessons should be institutionalized.. an action plan written.. as executable as any 'op order'.. and the skills practiced, rehearsed and canned and ready for use. THATS what a department of peace could be for. in another example cited belwo a filmmaker pioneered a technique for RESOLVING conflict among families accross political and ethnic divides in the balkans.. (see below) these are baby steps.. but a CABINET position heading a DEPARTMENT is a beauracratic organization funded to fulfil national policy objectives. We've spent the first 30 centuries of humanity funding and improving techniques of warmaking... when the secretary of peace sits down accross the table from...lets call it the secretary of War again shall we?.. what that person brings to the table should not be fluff and ideals... but techniques and tools and people to take up where a 'war' department cannot go... ******************************** June 9, 2005 
In Balkans, Video Letters Reconcile Lost Friends 
By ALAN RIDING 

PARIS, June 8 - Documentary film directors are often inspired by a dose of idealism, and even by the belief that their exposure of some atrocity or injustice can stir public outrage and government action. But rare is the case where filmmakers actually set out to do good and can claim to have achieved it. Eric van den Broek and Katarina Rejger are two such directors.
 
Five years ago, having already made several movies about the aftermath of the Balkan wars of the 1990's, the Dutch couple embarked on an extraordinary project called "Videoletters, " designed to further reconciliation among people from the former Yugoslavia who had once been friends and who had been separated and even alienated by the bloody nationalist conflict.http://arthurthedented.livejournal.com/3570.html

Suggested by Scott Keyes on 02/04/2009 @ 03:06PM PT
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How about no Department and just following the Constitution. If we were to actually look at it and study the principles of our Founding Fathers, we would clearly see that every war since WWII has been illegal, because Congress has not declared war since then. The Constitution is our best Department of Peace that we've had since the beginning of this great Republic. Legalize the Constitution!

Suggested by Dustin Sammann on 02/04/2009 @ 01:47PM PT
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The Department Of Peace must be pro-active and principled. I suggest the Department begin, as a statement of commitment and principle, with Gandhi's 11 "great vows" of Satyagraha.

Some of Satyagraha's vows are antiquated or too specific to its historical context. In particular vow #4, of chastity, would exclude many from fruitful service to the Department. I suggest the following form:

1. Non-violence. Not harming your enemies but reaching out to them in forgiveness and hospitality. Non-cooperation with those who use violence and collaboration with those who do not.

2. Strict adherence to Truth - this includes honesty, but goes beyond it to mean living actively in accord with what you know to be true. Rather than in wishful compromise.

3. Non-stealing - not exploiting others and actively avoiding any practice or product that involves use of fear, violence, addiction or fraud.

4. Ecological chastity - not raising children to live in poverty or animals to live in squalor. Working on the quality of all lives you create, consume or displace. Studying, adapting and propagating Permaculture.

5. Non-possession. Not the same as poverty, this means taking only what you need and providing the rest to benefit others in need. The opposite of waste, hoarding, and indulgence.

6. Choosing to work only in efforts to improve the human dignity and mutual understanding of your fellow people. All other forms of work serve purposes of tyranny.

7. Non-addiction. Freeing yourself from all personal dependencies including cigarettes, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, mass media and artificial foods. Addiction inevitably leads to compromise.

8. Fearlessness - courage on all occasions. The solution to terrorism is refusing to act from fear. Acting constructively, mindfully, to own your own life.
9. Equal respect for any religion or philosophy that observes the Golden Rule: "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself".

10. Initiating and participating in grass roots economic strategies such as small farm shares, boycotting franchise stores, open sourcing, mutual credit systems, and a determination to consume only local, ethically grown produce.

11. Non-racism - not just tolerance, but working to combine foreign cultures fruitfully with your own. Adapting Satyagraha so that it can propagate with these.

Suggested by Peter Merel on 02/04/2009 @ 01:43PM PT
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I also fully support the idea of Department of Peace and Non-violence.
But I wonder what are the rolls of this future organization? How we can define its rolls from the Department of National Security and Department of State? What about the UN?

Therefore, I think this future Department of Peace should be acted as a own UN in USA. It shoud take care of the International Peace as well as National Peace and Non-violence.

For example, if the Department of Peace can accormodate an International Peace University in USA and bring young people from war zones or conflict areas as well as domestic and teach them about Peace Education such as different cultures, religons, ethenics, even politics for 4 years and then return them to where they came from and let them participate into Peace Works in locally as well as internationally!

This suggestion by Dr. Yung Han Nam
President of Peace Hospital Foundation
Los Angeles, California USA

Suggested by Yung Nam on 02/04/2009 @ 01:05PM PT
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HELPING THE PEACE MOVEMENT
by Yoko Ono
On New Year’s Eve 2008, a MySpace friend wrote to me and asked “What can I do to help the Peace Movement?”This was my reply:Dear JakeThis is an age where one hero cannot conquer Evil.
Evil is a dis-ease presented to us as our fate.
Many times, it is presented to us as an illusion of goodness, so we get confused, don’t free ourselves from it and be destroyed by it.
To conquer evil, each one of us must first clearly see what it is… that it is a curable dis-ease.
Then work to release us from it’s power in a way we can.
Luckily, there are so many of us in the world, it is enough for all of us to do what we can do with joy, and not feel depressed that we are not doing enough.We should first IMAGINE PEACE, since we create our destiny by first imaging what destiny we want for ourselves.
We should ask others to IMAGINE PEACE as well.
One thing that is interesting is you cannot be violent while you are imagining peace.
If all of us in the world imagined peace at all times, there will be no time for us to create dis-ease of any kind.The next thing we should do is to ask to heal the world by asking your healing power to come out in a big way.
Your intent of healing will start to show it’s power by just asking for it.
Sometimes, you will be healing a situation which is not near you, so you won’t see it’s effect.
But healing is being done, regardless.
Again, when all of us in the world ask the world to be healed, it will be.Know that it is that simple.
Because all of us are one.
We affect each other right away.
We affect each other even when we are in fear, confusion, anger, and wanting to destroy the world and help to increase the dis-ease.
That’s how effective we are.Start doing what you can do.
The Universe will be affected right away as you start to think in the right way to correct the dis-ease in our world.
Start with something small.
Do one nice thing a day.
Call your mom and tell her you are thinking of her.
Look at the tree and admire it’s beauty in words and in action.
Send a message to your friend what you respect about her/him.
Send your message through the internet how you love life and why..well, that’s big!
If you keep doing that for three months you will see the difference in your life.Be creative.
Do what you can do.
By that, you will be starting the wheels of goodness to turn.Lots of love,
yokoYoko Ono
New York
1 January 2009.

Suggested by Yoko Ono on 02/04/2009 @ 12:27PM PT
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I am in support of a Department of Peace. Each and every one of us needs to put Peace in our daily lives. Love one another and end fear and hatred and judgements of any and all kinds.
God Bless us all,
P. L. Newton

Suggested by P N on 02/04/2009 @ 11:40AM PT
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The excerpts below are from the introductory essay in Mattie J.T. Stepanek's award-winning book, "Just Peace: A Message of Hope." Mattie was a best-selling author and well-respected peace activist, who died in 2004, just before his 14th birthday. He was also my son, and my best friend in the world. The establishment of a Department of Peace would not only be a gift "for our world," but it would also realize Mattie's dream of humanity united in hope and collaboration, rather than divided by conquering and retalitation. I fully support this effort, and offer my prayers for this endeavor as well. Please read on, for an excerpt from Mattie's message:
"I do not understand how, or why, the terrible, destructive, and unnecessary confusion of war remains such a strong and evident reality... We, the people, are intelligent, and compassionate, and creative in seeking solutions. We realize that the strategies and efforts of making war are time-consuming, expensive, and controversial. Perhaps, if we choose to invest as much time and energy in planning and making peace, as we have spent in planning and making war, we could be at a different point in history at any time we choose to begin such a remarkable and future-altering journey... I believe that the reality of peace begins within each one of us, when we have our basic needs met and when we are satisfied with who we are as a person; peace continues through our understanding, interactions, and involvement within and between our kin, our communities, and our countries; and, peace is fulfilled through our respect of the earth and life, including ourselves and each other. I believe that we have, we are, a mosaic of gifts, to nurture, to offer, to accept. I believe that we need to think gently, speak gently, and live gently... I believe that peace is just, and that peace is worthy, and that a plan for peace is more practical and achievable than we, the people, may realize. I believe that peace is possible for all people around the world, if we choose to make it something that really matters." (Mattie J.T. Stepanek, "Just Peace: A Message of Hope", Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2006).

Suggested by Jeni Stepanek on 02/04/2009 @ 11:37AM PT
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There is a very powerful communication model called NVC, (Non violent communication) This is the work of Marshall Rosenberg. Please check this out at nonviolentcommunication.com.
Aloha.

Suggested by Claudia Imperato on 02/04/2009 @ 10:26AM PT
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As a start, we need to accept ALL people to this group, whether they LOVE guns, LOVE Jesus, or only love themselves.

Suggested by Tom Windelborn on 02/04/2009 @ 09:13AM PT
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Hi. This is yoko ono.
I fully support the idea of voting for a DEPARTMENT OF PEACE.

Suggested by Yoko Ono on 02/04/2009 @ 08:49AM PT
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