Peace – by Margaret Koren

I enjoyed reading Rollie Atkinson‘s “Peace on Earth” because it
gave us pause to think about the holiday and peace issues. It has
also prompted me to write about my raison d’etre, to help realize
the creation of a Department of Peace. Currently many thousands of
people from at least 35 countries are working toward such a change.
Just as most countries have Departments or Ministries of Defense,
only Nepal, Costa Rica and the Solomon Islands have a department of
peace to create balance in their government structure. In the US,
HR808, the bill for a Department of Peace, has been languishing in
the House of Representatives for 10 years, waiting for politicians
to act. Even the recently popularized 1978 Youth Promise Act,
HR1064, a bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives and
companion bill in the Senate, have been overlooked by more than
three decades of Congresses.
Over many years certain politicians have undermined and dismissed
the work of peace activists and even the peacekeepers, who risk
their lives working for human rights and justice in war ravaged
countries where hotbeds of conflict turn into violent skirmishes.
There are countless “undocumented diplomats” who help to rebuild
communities and civil societies, armed only with peace education,
language, cultural and communication skills; peacemakers who
dissipate anger and disputes so that consensus can be reached and
reconciliation can begin. They include people working for the
United States Institute of Peace, a tiny part of the State
Department, operating with a miniscule budget, by today’s
standards, which was almost sent to the chopping block by too many
of our current shortsighted Members of Congress.
We know that the United States continues to solve age old problems
in the same way, where courts continue to use punitive measures for
nonviolent crimes when less costly restorative justice can be
instituted. We know that unemployment and home foreclosures have
created homelessness and poverty causing increased domestic
violence and suicides, while more gang related incidents,
associated with race, religion, homophobia, and misogyny, abound in
a country which has the world’s highest prison population and easy
access to guns and automatic weapons. We also know that there is no
single government entity or existence of a cabinet level position
dedicated to peace building, or the study of conditions that
promote domestic and international peace, to advance the work of
more comprehensive security through peace education and the study
of root causes of conflict. Many of us believe that our leaders
will not entertain such a new idea as a Department of Peace,
without a movement to make it happen, a movement like the “Women’s
Suffrage.”
So it is up us, you and I, to work for peace; firstly, by being the
peace we want to see in the world. All this being said, I am happy
to tell you that Sonoma County is celebrating the “Season For
Nonviolence” again in 2012. This global and national 64 day
educational, media and grassroots campaign for nonviolence was
inspired in 1998 by memorializing the anniversaries of Mahatma
Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King with the adoption of Cesar Chavez
in 2007 because of his inspirational work in nonviolent social
change. Our local event can be found at www.mettacenter.org/season 
and is co-sponsored by a coalition of non-profits seeking to help
us move beyond adversarial views toward a community living together
in peace. It is the best practices of programs that these
organizations offer, that would be instituted and funded with
serious money from a federal source, should we have a cabinet level
US Department of Peace. Info @ www.thepeacealliance.org
Margaret Koren is a Windsor resident.