"Department of Peace" Candidate?

[CanuckAmok]

I know I could Google this, but I thought I'd come straight to the horses mouths here at DU...

While listening to my local indie community radio station ( http://www.chly.fm )I caught the very end of an interview with a Dem candiadate who, among other things, is advocating the creation of a "Department of Peace", which, despite its Orwellian sounding-name, would be a department created to wean the population of the idea that war is an inevitable, acceptable and necessary step in Western Foreign Policy.

Unfortunately, the end of the interview (which was a feed from one of the US-based indie stations) was cut-off by local programming.

So, I didn't get the name of the candidate, or any more information about him. Does anyone know who he is, and what his other core beliefs are?

[dpbrown]

1. Kucinich

http://kucinich.us/issues/issue_departmentpeace.htm

Read all about it.

[FreedomReload]

2. Proof His Message Is Powerful

Just hearing his ideas without knowing who he is getting people interested.

[CanuckAmok]

3. Thanks!

Yes, it's such a radical idea, I'm intrigued to hear what else he has to say. We don't get lots of media coverage here on US candidates until closer to the election (unless they, er, manage to embarass themselves--not that that ever happens...)

[revcarol]

4. Save your money, Canuck..

if Bush gets re-elected or we get a hawk Dem, we may be on the warpath for years to come...and we'll need your Canadian CARE packages.

[CanuckAmok]

6. Can't help ya there...

Mrs Amok and I have already agreed that if DimSon gets in in 2004, we're uprooting and emigrating to New Zealand. Our house will be for sale at that point, so please keep us in mind if you'r planning on heading North (new hardwood all 'round, and a nice view of the Pacific Ocean!)

[Tinoire]

5. Department of Peace Web-Site

((Tons of GREAT stuff at this site)

Hosted by Marianne Williamson
Featuring Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Thom Hartmann and more!


Participate in an historic citizen lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace (HR 1673), sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. This bill establishes nonviolence as an organizing principle of American society, providing the U.S. President with an array of peace-building policy options for domestic and international use.

Just as the passage of the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery took years to pass; just as the nineteenth amendment providing women's suffrage took years to pass; just as the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's took years to pass, this legislation provides substance and meaning to the political yearnings of our generation. It systematically applies the power of peace to the eradication of root causes of violence.

The Department would focus on nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions, prevent violence and promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights. Domestically, the Department would be responsible for developing policies which address issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, mistreatment of the elderly, and other issues of cultural violence. Internationally, the Department would gather research, analyze foreign policy and make recommendations to the President on how to address the root causes of war and intervene before violence begins, while improving national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict.

In the words of president Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Politics should be the part-time profession of every American." We think he was right.

Join us now. Create a Department of Peace. We can do this.

Click here to read more and find out what you can do!



"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiples it.

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate, In fact violence merely increases hate.

So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

-Martin Luther King, Jr.




http://www.dopcampaign.org/