WHY I SUPPORT A US DEPARTMENT OF PEACE

speech by Rep. James McGovern

Please let me begin by expressing my own appreciation and support for the efforts of everyone in this room to make this world a more peaceful place.

It means a great deal to me to meet people and organizations that are committed to building a more peaceful world and using peaceful, non-violent means as a tool of action, as a tool to create social change.

I know that you all have the skill, the experience and the commitment to work towards improving the human condition. I know that you believe, like I do, that by working together, we can develop creative and innovative ways to increase the impact of peace-building at all levels of society, nationally and internationally. And if there is one thing I am sure of, it’s that we can make a difference.

I know that Dave just summarized the key elements of H.R. 1673, which was the bill number in the 108th Congress, of legislation to establish a Cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace. I know that my good friend and colleague, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, plans to reintroduce this legislation soon, and I am already on his list as an original cosponsor of this bill.

This bill - and the vision of Congressman Kucinich - embrace a broad-based approach to non-violent conflict resolution, both here at home and internationally. A Department of Peace would actually serve to promote non-violence as an organizing principle in our society, and promote non-violence as a fundamental value of our society. In effect, it seeks to help create the conditions for a less violent, more peaceable world.

Domestically, the Department would be responsible for developing policies to address such issues as domestic violence, child abuse, and the mistreatment of the elderly. Internationally, it would make recommendations to the President on the protection and promotion of human rights, and the prevention and de-escalation of international conflict.

One aspect of this bill that I like very much is that the Department would have an Office of Peace Education to work with educators in elementary, secondary and higher education on the development and implementation of curricula to teach students in conflict resolution skills. It would also create a Peace Academy, modeled after our military service academies, where the best and the brightest would receive instruction in peace education and offer opportunities for graduates to serve in programs dedicated to domestic or international conflict resolution.

Many people might dismiss this proposal out of hand as utopian, but let me talk about a couple of aspects of this proposed Department that demonstrate how efforts in this direction are already underway.

Let me start with the Peace Academy. I happen to be the Democratic Co-Chair of the Congressional Hunger Center. My Republican counterpart is Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri. The Hunger Center is dedicated to training up the next generation of leaders in the fight against hunger. Many people think ending hunger is an idealistic and impossible goal. I don’t. I think it’s a matter of political will. And I can tell you that every year, we are flooded with applications from some of the best graduate students in the country to spend one year working as fellows in domestic hunger organizations and domestic hunger policy-making offices - or two years working one year as a fellow in an overseas placement targeting hunger and then one year back here in the United States in an international policy-making placement addressing hunger issues.

I can guarantee you that many of these young men and women would have been happy to apply for admission to a Peace Academy, if they had been offered such an opportunity.

We need to remember - once upon a time, there was no Peace Corps; there was no VISTA program; there was no Department of Education, for that matter. It took leaders with visions to create these programs and agencies. This case is no different.

War is always presented as something inevitable, a tragic aspect of human nature, and an unfortunate, but necessary, means of ensuring peace and stability.

Well, war is not inevitable unless we refuse to work - patiently and tirelessly - for peace.

War with Iraq was presented as inevitable. In fact, it was presented as so necessary that the failure to go to war would result in the demise or imminent harm of the United States. Except it was all a lie. No weapons of mass destruction. No ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. No imminent threat whatsoever. And yet, those of us who raised questions about the rationale leading up to the war are still held up to public criticism, even though the questions we were raising were correct - and even though the alternative action we were proposing, namely letting the UN arms inspectors complete their mission, would have resolved all the unanswered questions.

Isn’t it time to insist that our leaders suspend their incessant talk of preventive war? Of their presumed right act unilaterally? Isn’t it time that we insist upon “preventive diplomacy” and our obligation to lead and work with the world community on matters of global security?

I have a vision of nations working together, using what President Roosevelt called the “science of human relationships” to end conflicts before they flare into full-fledged armed war. That is the basis for the creation of a Department of Peace.

When Walter Cronkite first heard that legislation had been introduced in the Congress to create a Department of Peace, he stated “there is an urgency to its adoption. In this dangerous world, where the strength of the United States is needed to keep the peace, we need a visible manifestation of our intention to play that role, without the arrogance that cost us friends and allies among the nations and peoples of the world.”

Well, I agree with Walter Cronkite.

There is an urgency. There is a need. And this is the time for vision and for action.

You must continue to use your voice to demand change in U.S. policies that escalate conflict, violence, the violation of human rights, and war.

And I will continue to help you in this effort by playing a similar role in Congress.

I know that together, we will succeed.