H.R. 808 would establish a Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
Detailed Summary
Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act - Establishes a Department of Peace and Nonviolence, which shall be headed by a Secretary of Peace and Nonviolence appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. Sets forth the mission of the Department, including to: (1) hold peace as an organizing principle; (2) endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights; and (3) develop policies that promote national and international conflict prevention, nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict, and structured mediation of conflict.
Status of the Legislation
Latest Major Action: 5/18/2007: Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
Points in Favor
There is currently no organized approach by the U.S. government that aims at creating nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflict. A violent response to violence should always be our last resort, which is difficult in the absence of a sophisticated, well-funded strategy for peace.
- The Department of Peace is not anti-military.
- The current bill calls for budgeting the Department of Peace at 2% of our defense budget. With over 400 billion dollars now spent on military-related expenditures, it should not be asking too much to spend the equivalent of two per cent of that amount on providing complementary problem-solving options.
Why We Need a Dept. of Peace:
- To reduce domestic and international violence
- To gather and coordinate information and recommendations from Americas peace community
- To teach violence prevention and mediation to Americas school children
- To effectively treat and dismantle gang psychology
- To rehabilitate the prison population
- To build peace-making efforts among conflicting cultures both here and abroad
- To support our military with complementary approaches to ending violence
*Source: The Peace Alliance Web Site
Points Against
(Log in to edit the wiki and be the first to show why the bill should not pass!)
Visitor Comments
Brian
Can you say BIG GOVERNMENT!! Yet another means for democrats to instill socialist doctrine upon us (not to mention an excuse to raise taxes), in fact, I don't believe I have seen a proposal yet that reeks of Marxism more than this! While we are at it, why don't we consult Hugo Chavez on the art of nationalization!
Jake
Another Moonbat Special.
What narcotic were the authors of this bill using?
Jay Breneman
The husband and wife that initially wrote this bill, had it first introduced in the late 1970s, and it has been re-introduced almost every single year since.
The concept is simple: No wonder we are always engaging in wars if we do not actively engage in MEANINGFUL peaceful solutions to our problems. A Department of Peace would assure that we are not always beating the drums of war as an answer to everything.
Jay Breneman
Forgive my first sentence in my last remark. I was mistaken. I was confused over this and another bill.
Citizen of America
This bill sounds like Some One is setting up another Government and this is very strange Bill. Another STRANGE Bill among many I have been reading so far......Americans Wake Up Before We Have No More America!!
Vote NO on this bill.
Brian
I suggest you thoroughly ponder the monumental damage a "Department of Peace and Nonviolence" could do to your God given rights as an American before you support this bill! I promise you it is not as benign as it sounds, read the bill and you'll see what I mean! This lesgislation could, among other things, potentially hand over our sovereignty to international "peacekeeping" organizations, most notably the U.N., and will strip us of vital rights protected in the Constitution. The Second Amendment would be in the most immediate danger citing an "overwhelming presence of handguns" and their "control" as a key issue in establishing domestic "peace".
S. Kincaid
Marxism, eh? I don't recall the Soviet Union having a Dept. of Peace. If anything, it's Orwellian, but then so is a Dept. of *Defense* rather than *War*.
What are you defending, if I may be so forward as to ask? The right to kill? To war? To hate and bash? I am a firm believer that democracies, in their truest form, are inherently peaceful, and I believe we have true democracy right here in America.
Keep in mind that the Constitution cannot be affected by legislation, short of an amendment. That's why we have a Supreme Court. Guns themselves are not the cause of murder -- and I have a strange feeling that the abolition of the Second Amendment would have a terrible effect on America. Recall the Eighteenth Amendment? Guns are quite a lot like alcohol in this respect.
And a US-restrained cabinet-level organization wouldn't do any more damage to our 'sovereignty', as if such a thing existed anymore, than has already been done with the signing of the UN Charter in 1945.
Brian
Hello world, here's a song that we're singin'
Come on, get happy
A whole lotta lovin' is what we'll be bringin'
We'll make you happy
We had a dream we'd go travelin' together
And spread a little lovin' if we'll keep movin' on
Somethin' always happens whenever we're together
We get a happy feelin' when we're singin' a song
Travelin' along, there's a song that we're singin'
Come on, get happy
A whole lotta lovin' is what we'll be bringin'
We'll make you happy
We'll make you happy
We'll make you happy
S. Kincaid
I'm as skeptical as the next American, but I find it difficult to believe that a cabinet-level Dept. of Peace would be any more terrible than a Dept. of Defense.
This bill has *no* stipulations to remove our sovereignty, increase the size of the federal government (and if it did, couldn't we simply decrease the size of the executive branch, or the Dept. of Defense?), instill socialist doctrine, increase taxes, remove our God-given rights to carry weapons and protest for redress of grievance, or compel us to sing songs that have absolutely no bearing on the subject.
Read the directions on the 'Add Comment' thing: *Please do other visitors the courtesy of expressing yourself concisely.* Think about that, Brian.
And I still haven't heard any answers to my earlier questions and arguments. How am I to learn the opposing arguments when nobody's arguing?
Brian
S. Kincaid, I am encouraged that you at least agree with me that guns are not the cause of violence in the U.S., and I agree with you that this bill is Orwellian (that was my point), but are you sure you read and FULLY understood this bill, and also took into consideration who authored it? If not, please read it again, this time more carefully and you might see how my satirical use of the Partridge Family theme song has some relevance to the subject! Do me that much courtesy before launching an attack on me simply for expressing my opinion on this B.S. bill!
Erik
Orwellian? What we have today in this counrty is Orwellian: a total monopoly of America by the Pentagon and Big Media. A Department of Peace would go a long way towards handing back some of that power to American and Earth Citizens who believe in creativity rather than destruction.
In regards to the Partridge Family theme it sure sounds a hell of lot better to me than "Over There."
I'm sick of righteous-idiot critics don't believe in peace and tell us we're all fools. What crap!. They've obviously never had their homes bombed, loved ones shot, infrastructure ruined and their hometown razed into a toxic (radioactive bunker busters anyone? How about clusterbombs for your kids to play with?) pit.
Why on earth would you want to perpetuate the true nature and nightmare of war?
WAKE UP! We NEED a Department of Peace to balance out the munitions-mad way this country behaves. We needed it centuries ago and we need it more desperately than ever today.