Report from Capitol Hill - Department of Peace Lobbyists from Maryland

by Ted Nunn

Published April 05, 2009 @ 05:54PM PT

On Monday, March 23, a band of intrepid citizen lobbyists from Maryland joined arms with activists from around the country and visited our elected officials to campaign for support of H.R. 808 - The Department of Peace act. We had meetings with 5 of our 8 Representatives and with Senator Ben Cardin.

The first meeting - led by newcomer activist Lisa Cosgrove (Silver Spring) - was at 9 a.m. with Ken Cummings, Legislative Aide for Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland District #8. (The Maryland DOP team had also met with Mr. Cummings two years ago to discuss the legislation for the 110th Congress.) Mr. Cummings listened politely but reiterated some of the standard objections to the legislation, including the cost of setting up a new bureacracy and the impression that existing government agencies are already supporting the many of the things outlined in H.R. 808. The logical response is to point out that whatever exists now isn't working. So, we will need to work with Mr. Van Hollen's office to educate them on how things need to be done differently in order to reduce violence in society. If Rep. Van Hollen isn't going to cosponsor H.R. 808, what legislation will he put forward to help reduce violence?

The second meeting - led by State Coordinator Ted Nunn (Columbia) - was at 10 am with Racquel Gallman, Legislative Aide for Rep. Elijah Cummings (no relation), MD district #7. Ms. Gallman is on a one-year fellowship from the DOD, on loan to Congressman Cumming's office in order to learn more about the Legislative branch. Rep. Cummings is already a cosponsor of H.R. 808, so our conversation with Ms. Gallman revolved more around understanding what the Congressman finds appealing about the bill (he supports any effort to empower peole to move in a positive direction, including violence reduction) and about how to market the bill to future cosponsors. She pointed out the need to make the vast array of violence statistics meaningful to the specific district - advice which helped in subsequent meetings.

The third meeting of the morning - led by District Team Leader Joyce Lang (Cheverly) - was at 11 am with Nate Tipton, Legislative Aide for Rep. Donna Edwards, newly representing MD district #4. (Rep. Edwards replaced Albert Wynn, who was a cosponsor of H.R. 808 in the 110th Congress.) The large group of visitors overwhelmed the freshman Congresswoman's small office, so we had to meet in "the halls of Congress" (literally!). Mr. Tipton listened to the information offered on the sources of violence and about the proven programs that can be put in place to reduce violence. Then he commented on how impressed the Congresswoman is with the groundswell of support for H.R. 808 from the district, pointing out that this was the fourth meeting he had taken on this topic. He pointed out that domestic violence is an important issue for Rep. Edwards, and that she believes security can be increased through peace. He indicated that Rep. Edwards is likely to come on as a co-sponsor, and that it is mostly a matter of processing the paperwork. The District 4 team will be following up in the coming months to make sure nothing gets in the way of making this happen.

The fourth meeting - led by District Team Leader Susan Owen (Annapolis) - was at 12 noon with Roy Chrobocinski, Legislative Aide for Rep. John Sarbanes from MD district #3. The DOP team laid out "a strong case" in support of H.R. 808 and Mr. Chrobocinski indicated that he would discuss the legislation with Rep. Sarbanes. Mr. Chrobocinski commented that he had seen first-hand from his own high school experience in New Jersey how teaching conflict resolution skills can help reduce violence in schools. He also pointed out that Rep. Sarbanes is a supporter of the Public Service Academy idea, which may also imply support for the National Peace Academy, a component of H.R. 808. The district team will follow up with Mr. Sarbanes' office after April 3rd, when the appropriations cycle is complete.

The fifth meeting of the day - led by activist Marsha Lehman (Union Bridge) - was at 1 pm with Annie Baker, Legislative Aide for Rep. Roscoe Bartlett from MD district #8. (Rep. Bartlett is the lone Republican in the Maryland Congressional delegation.) The DOP team focused on the economics of nonviolence, and used the story of WA state corrections success with reducing violence in prisons to demonstrate how H.R. 808 could benefit the citizens of district 6. The team also pointed out that Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (formerly from MD district #1, and a fellow Republican) supported H.R. 808 in the 110th Congress. Ms. Baker mentioned that Rep. Bartlett is looking into the Public Service Academy, and that she would discuss H.R. 808 with him.

The final meeting of the day - led by Joan Breitman (Rockville) - was at 4:30 with Anh Nguyen, Legislative Aide (Foreign Relations) for Senator Ben Cardin. Ms. Nguyen pointed out that Sen. Cardin is a strong supporter of peace and is involved with legislation to stop mass atrocities, such as the Darfur genocide. She shared her own background as a high school student in lower Montgomery county and some of the violence she experienced there. She also mentioned courses she took at UMCP in conflict resolution, so she understands the science behind H.R. 808. Ms. Nguyen pointed out that a new, separate department would be difficult to gain support for, but that the "special envoy" ("Peace Czar"?) approach might be more acceptable in the near term. She will meet with the Judiciary Aide in Senator Cardin's office to see what the best approach might be for moving these ideas forward.

Overall, it was an incredible lobbying experience for new and seasoned citizen activists alike. Special thanks to the leaders mentioned above who helped organize the meetings and to Bob Cooke, David Cockrell, Ronnie Fellerath-Lowell, and Liz-from-Baltimore.

If you haven't already done so, please send your Representative a note asking them to support H.R. 808 and the Department of Peace idea. Whether from Maryland or elsewhere, chances are there was a DOP team from your district on the Hill last Monday, and your Reps. need to know you support the idea, too!

Robert Koehler on the 2009 Department of Peace National Conference

by Ted Nunn

Published March 27, 2009 @ 06:56PM PT

The following excerpt is from Robert Koehler's latest on The Huffington Post - "Gold For Humanity":

"When exactly did it happen -- that "blinding flash of the obvious"?

It may have been during lunch -- outside, in a park in the nation's capital on a beautiful, cherry-blossom afternoon -- as public health theorist Ari Cowan held forth about working with maximum security prisoners in Washington state. Having described a program that treats "violent" as a temporary condition, like "has a headache," Cowan said he tells these guys, as they start to grasp the idea that they aren't scumbags and monsters, "You're the ones who will save humanity."

There were more than 400 people at the biennial Peace Alliance conference -- from 40 states, 10 countries -- to celebrate a piece of legislation: H.R. 808, a bill Dennis Kucinich originally introduced in 2001, and then in every session of Congress thereafter, to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace. But this is a movement that transcends politics and, in a sense, language itself, in that the words we use to describe "peace" embody the defeat and hopelessness of the past and thus evoke instant cynicism and dismissal.

So bear with me, please, as I try to work around such limitations. We may not know it, imprisoned as we are within our words, our politics and our media, but we already live in a world that is permeated with peace. It's not a static state:
It is growing -- sometimes in the darkest corners of human despair. And that's the message the conference unleashed, over and over again."

Check out the remainder of this post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-koehler/gold-for-humanity_b_179591.html

Department of Peace Activists Converge on D.C.

by Ted Nunn

Published March 19, 2009 @ 04:21PM PT

This coming weekend, March 20-23, hundreds of citizen activists from around the country will be meeting in Arlington, VA, for the 6th National Conference to inspire civic activism and promote legislation for a cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace. This is expected to be the largest conference ever to make it possible for as many as 1000 U.S. and global citizens to convene in the nation’s capital and have their voices heard to positively impact and cultivate a culture of peace — in this country and abroad. Conference attendees will develop peacebuilding and organizing skills and meet people that they will connect with for a lifetime of peace activism.

The conference is co-sponsored by The Peace Alliance along with the Student Peace Alliance as a youth-adult partnership. Conference videos will be posted on YouTube and Change.org. You can help by visiting the Change.org action page and send an e-mail to your Representative asking them to support H.R. 808.

Please also keep these citizen activists in your thoughts as you go about your weekend, knowing that people just like you are working to make nonviolence an operating principle at the highest levels of our government.
 

Miramar, Florida, Supports a Department of Peace

by Ted Nunn

Published March 16, 2009 @ 12:36PM PT

The Miramar, FL, (pop. 108,240) city commision unanimously approved a resolution in support of H.R. 808 - the Department of Peace act - at their Feb. 18th meeting. Several DOP activists and supporters spoke passionately in favor of the resolution, including Maggie Macaulay and Ana Campos. The mayor of Miramar - Lori Moseley - specifically pointed out:

"...the passion of Ms. Macaulay and her fellow advocates was what swayed my opinion in favor of the cause, ... [I] love when people participate and work together."

Commissioner Winston Barnes noted one of the things he found gratifying was the bill had been around for so long, the fact that the idea was not a brand new one. Both Mayor Moseley and Vice Mayor Yvonne Garth expressed their thanks to the speakers for pointing out that the DOP legislation is not specifically about U.S. war policy, but that it icludes provisions for dealing with issues of violence within the U.S. as well as abroad.

The topic of funding the new Department of Peace was also discussed at some length. Initially, the concern was raised that, especially under the current economic climate, the cost of funding a new department would be low on the priority list. However, after discussing the ecomonic benefits of addressing the root causes of violence so that we don't have to pay for the aftermath of violence, the council agreed that:

"The longer the wait, the bigger the problem will become"

The commission concluded by unanimously passing the resolution to send a letter in support of H.R. 808 to Congress. With this resolution, Miramar joins 38 other governing bodies across the U.S. - including Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles - that have formally supported of the Department of Peace legislation. These 39 entities represent over 13 million people!

This story is a great example of engaged civic activism! Congratulations to activists Maggie McCauley, Ana Campos and the rest of the South Florida DOP team for making this happen!

For more on the Department of Peace legislation visit The Peace Alliance web site. The Peace Alliance also has tips and tools for working with your own city government on a resolution in support of H.R. 808.

Get active! Make Peace! Make History!

What's more popular - "Violence" or "Nonviolence"?

by Ted Nunn

Published March 11, 2009 @ 11:05AM PT

Try this interesting exercise to see for yourself:

1. Visit your favorite search engine
2. Enter the term "violence" and make note of the number of articles returned
3. Next, enter the term "nonviolence" and note the number of hits

I tried this on Google, searching the period over the past month, and came up with 140,000 hits for violence and only 400 hits for nonviolence. A ratio of 350:1! Granted, this includes the past several days where the domestic violence accounts of Chris Brown and Rihanna were the top stories, so the results may be a bit skewed this week. But still, what does this say about our culture?

Is this evidence that our culture values violence 350 times more than nonviolence? Is it just that violence, like sex, sells? Would people not pay for (and advertisers not support) newspapers that write stories mostly about nonviolence? Or is it just easier and more familiar to express our observations in terms of the negative - violence - than trying to reframe in terms of nonviolence?

One of the stories that showed up in my "violence" search was about a charity bash in L.A. to raise awareness about (and money for) "violence against women". It strikes me that we are already well aware there's an issue of violence against women, and that what we really need is awareness of what can be done to address violence against women.

IMHO, we need to change the conversation to "respect for women" or "nonviolent alternatives for expressing your anger", or raising "awareness of domestic tranquility". If this sounds somewhat cheesy, it could be a reflection on my writing skills - after all, I'm a geek, not a novelist. However, it could also be because we're just not used to talking this way!

The Department of Peace being proposed in Congress (H.R. 808) would be a big step in moving us toward a culture that values nonviolence more than violence. For example, the legislation includes provision for teaching nonviolent conflict resolution skills to school children. How many generations will it take until the ratio shifts to 350 stories about nonviolence for ever one story about violence? Who knows? But it will happen a lot sooner if we put the Department of Peace to work for us now than if we keep doing things the way we've been doing them and expect things to magically get better.

Help support the shift! Contact your Representative now and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 808!

Why Do Kids Fight?

by Ted Nunn

Published March 05, 2009 @ 11:02AM PT

CNN.com posted another story today about another fight at another middle school where another group of kids recorded another video for posting on YouTube, complete with background music. (I won't provide the YouTube link because I don't want to support this kind of thing with a visit.) The school is in Wisconsin, but the location really doesn't matter. This sort of thing can happen anywhere.

Many people loudly lament these events. "Why do kids do this?" "Where are the teachers?" "Where are the parents?" All legitimate questions, but thinking that bewailing the savagery and brutality will cause anything to change is a sure sign of insanity. Teachers are already doing the best they know how with the direction and limited resources they've been given. Likewise, the parents who get it are already passing on the values of civility and nonviolence to their kids. (BTW - Those kids are not anywhere to be seen in the above picture.) And the parents that don't get it - the ones that teach through their actions and words that "might makes right" - are just making things worse. Adding more school police doesn't help. The kids just move the fight somewhere else.

A visitor from abroad once inquired:

"Why is it that Americans are so advanced and literate, and yet so violent?"

The answer:

"Because we teach our kids to read."

It seems rather obvious that, for the most part, our kids don't have the skills they need to resolve their differences nonviolently. Without some kind of intervention, these kids grow up to be adults who cannot resolve their differences nonviolently.

The proposed Department of Peace will help educate children in the life skills they need, such as mediation and conflict resolution, that would create safer and more productive learning environments. The best school programs that have already been proven to reduce violence in some districts will be expanded and made available everywhere. Kind of a "No Child Left Violent" campaign.

Check out the Department of Peace bill - H.R. 808 - and contact your Representatives and Senators and ask them to support this important legislation! Help kids get the skills they need to resolve their conflicts without resorting to violence!

The Greatest Crime of All

by Wendy Greene

Published February 23, 2009 @ 02:52PM PT

I thought about not writing this blog. I thought about turning a blind eye to the stories I'm reading in the Sunday paper; about remaining inured to the ubiquity of violence. I thought about flipping to the page with the Oscar ballot and making my guesses in advance of the night's big show, or hanging with three 14-year-old girls enjoying a post-sleepover bagel-fest.

After all, every day the papers are full of these stories. And not just my paper--every paper in the country, perhaps in the world, is printed black and white with the blood of victims of violent crime. Why take action today? What makes this any different than every other day in America?

Nothing. And that's the greatest crime of all.

By page six of the Baltimore Sun, I'd read of seven people murdered in the city. (How many pages did you get through in your paper?).

Page one told of Nathaniel Hicks, "killed for making fun of his friend's tennis shoes," and the street justice that resulted in one witness murdered before testifying (he was 16), another threatened if she didn't change her story (she refused witness protection and had to be arrested to ensure her safety), and a third recanting his story after a turn in jail for a drug conviction taught him the dangers of ratting out another con (his arrest occurred during the six months it took to get the case through the clogged court system).

And what about courtroom justice? Jurors conducted independent research but no one reported it so what was actually a mistrial continued until the lone juror believing the accused was guilty "caved" because, "I couldn't continue to put myself through the yelling and screaming for eight hours a day."

Yes, violence comes in many forms.

The killer walked--right back into street justice. Shot multiple times while getting into his car, he survived but "has trouble walking." An alleged accomplice wasn't so lucky. As the paper observes, "His killer didn't bother to steal the packages of cocaine he was carrying." A second, already on probation for another crime, "figured he was next and asked that his probation be transferred to another state."

And that was just page one.

I might have remained inactive if it'd been just that story--shocking, really, to consider, but honest. I feel safe admitting it only because I imagine you might have felt the same way reading your paper.

It was the four brief stories nestled on page six that got me. One told of youth participating in a police education program, learning how they can become involved in law enforcement. One 10th grade girl is particularly passionate and wants to be a forensic specialist because, "All my friends are being killed, and I want to know who's doing it." Her cousin "Smiley" was killed at a take-out place by her home because the perpetual smile that earned him is nickname was misconstrued as insulting by a man arguing with his wife, so the man shot him in the head.

The other three warranted one short paragraph each: a 16-year-old girl arrested and charged as an adult for murdering a 20-year-old man; a 24-year-old shot in the head in an alley near a shopping center; a 33-year-old man dead from multiple gunshot wounds. His name was withheld pending notification of family.

Will that call inspire action in them or be just another dose of numbing reality? Or will it be the start of a new bout of street justice?

The simple horror of these tales and their prevalence was not what finally got me to act today; it's that each addresses what happens AFTER the disaster occurs. None creates a plan to PREVENT the tragedy in the first place.

We can't just keep putting Band-Aids on gaping wounds, hoping to staunch the bleeding to a level low enough that those of us not directly affected by the hemorrhaging can continue to distract ourselves with entertainment award shows and bagels.

It seems we must flip our "justice" model on its head. The cops deserve better, the courts deserve better, the victims deserve better and yes, I'll say it--the perpetrators deserve better. Heck, I deserve better. YOU deserve better.

That's what a Department of Peace is all about.

When we've successfully moved from reaction to prevention, resolving conflict before it becomes crime, I bet Sunday morning bagels will taste a whole lot better, and Oscar parties will be that much more fun.

Wendy Greene is Managing Director of The Peace Alliance, the national nonpartisan nonprofit organization supporting the Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace. Come to the Department of Peace Campaign 2009 National Conference and help be part of the solution. Learn more at The Peace Alliance website.