Feature Story
The Fight For The Department Of Peace
by Andrea Verdin
In a world where gang violence, rape, and war are commonplace, where children think it’s the norm to fight against races different from their own, and where prisons are filled to capacity, people clamoring for peace are looking for answers to stop the violence. This year we are heading for a change in our presidency and many individuals are looking toward the government for those answers. What are the best solutions to save our communities and our world? What can save our sons and daughters from this constant struggle for peace? One group says they may have the answer. The Peace Alliance is a national campaign to establish a Department of Peace. They have created legislation entitled H808 that outlines how the department can not only help to promote peace, but can actually prevent wars from happening and reduce the amount of domestic violence that is ravaging our country.
Can one department promise peace?
There are Departments of Peace chapters in all fifty states that are pushing their local city and state councils to support the Peace Alliance, and city councils like San Francisco, San Jose, Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago, and Atlanta have shown their support for the legislation as well. Leaders are hoping to have the bill on the Senate floor within the next year.
In actuality, the United States is just one of many countries around the world whose citizens are working to create a Department, or Ministry, of Peace. Many of the U.S.’s worldwide allies are working to create their own Ministry of Peace, including Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. A few, such as Nepal and Costa Rica, have already reorganized their governments to include a Department of Peace and Justice. According to Patty Kuderer, the national director of communications for The Peace Alliance, even though the countries that are being pro-active in reorganized their governments are small, they’ve become examples of what future governments could do.
“All of this is working for a Global Peace Alliance, and the goal is that we will have this kind of department or ministry in every country,” said Kuderer. “We would like to start with those [areas] that are particularly prone to war, which Nepal has been. Costa Rica is not, but [lies] on the border with Nicaragua, where there is a lot of warring going on. We want to raise the consciousness of people everywhere about peace.”
The goal of the Alliance is to eventually get to a point where international crises and conflicts are resolved not with a country declaring war on another, as countries are prone to do, but by using a nonviolent approach to eliminate the conflict that causes rifts between countries in the first place.
“We have never had this kind of weaponry at our disposal like that which we have [today]. We can blow up the earth three hundred times over, and we only need to do it once to be successful,” said Kuderer. “We need to see that war is an obsolete military tool, and step back and say there is a better, more strategic way of resolving international crises and conflict. But it’s going to take a lot more work and effort than it does to bomb a country.”
It seems like the idea of alternatives to war is starting to catch on. According to Kuderer, the military is talking about revamping their strategy with what they call “stability operations.” These operations will train soldiers in nonviolent communications and peace building skills. If put into practice, the Department of Peace would develop a Peace Academy, a sister to the military academy, that would train civilian peace-keepers how to go into areas that have been stabilized by the military and provide basic necessities to people. This would eliminate part of the daily struggle that causes violence in a particular area. They would be mediators between locals and the military and be able to translate the military’s plans to the people. They would also be able to explain the culture of the area they are in to the U.S. military.
In addition to leading the international training aspect, the Secretary of Peace would provide strategy recommendations and advice to the President on resolving international crises and conflicts without resorting to violence. This would be done by using dialogue before there is even a need or a cause for war. While the Secretary of State talks to different heads of state, the Secretary of Peace would attempt to enter into dialogue with leaders of terrorist groups—something the Secretary of State cannot do.
The creation of a Department of Peace does not mean that the United States needs to abandon the military and become a pacifist country. It’s not a process that will make instant changes, but would take vision, dedication, and commitment to enact. In the long run, it would be a vehicle to create the awareness that killing, bombing and violence aren’t necessary in order to resolve conflicts.
“I really do believe that there is a place for government in our lives, and one of the things we can rightfully expect from our government is to provide for the health, safety and welfare of its people,” says Kuderer.
While this is breaking ground for the peaceful resolution of international conflicts, there’s a domestic aspect that cannot be ignored. H808 also addresses school shootings, bullying, car bombings, domestic violence, and gang violence which has gotten out of hand in our country. According to the World Health Organization, from three hundred to five hundred billion dollars are being spent every year reacting to violence in this country. That means every two years, over a trillion dollars are being put into dealing with domestic issues such as these after situations have already gotten out of hand.
Because the Department of Peace would be another bureaucracy, it would cost about eight billion dollars to run properly. But in comparison to the trillion we spend every few years on domestic violence alone, it’s worth the expense, especially since its work would go right back into the community.
“In our research, we have discovered that most of the existing programs, like [those created by] the Violence Against Women Act, address everything after the fact, such as providing shelter from domestic violence and providing funding for criminal justice systems,” says Jerilyn Stapleton, the 28th congressional district team leader in Los Angeles. “We want to prevent [these things] from happening in the beginning, which takes educating children while they’re in school about nonviolence so they can begin to solve their conflicts without going to violence.”
Kuderer agrees: “We are looking at violence from the old perspective, the way we did in the 50s, which was similar to “get sick, take a pill, and then we’ll get better.” Now, the whole emphasis is, “let’s not get sick.” What we are saying is let’s not wait for violence to occur and then use the court system, use the medical system, and use the police. Let’s work proactively to address what causes the violence.”
The changes that a Department of Peace would create would be subtle enough to be sustainable. They would be gradual and would build a solid foundation for nonviolence. The idea is to be proactive rather than reactive. It is about understanding that the issue is not how we get out of the problems we are in now, but rather, how we prevent our children from entering them to begin with.
The Department of Peace would implement programs that are already working on the local level and fund them adequately so that they can be used nationally. For example, in San Diego, volunteers are going into grade schools and working with children to persuade them not to join gangs. Stapleton says, upon entering the program, over ninety-five percent of students think joining a gang is cool, but by the time they’ve finished the program, the numbers are completely reversed. This program is now being used in Los Angeles with similar success rates.
In Kentucky’s state prisons, a program called Shakespeare Behind Bars allows inmates to put on a Shakespearean play. But before they do, they must understand the character they will be playing and be able to explain why he or she behaves the way they do. This activity is helping them to investigate their own behavior and what got them into prison. None of the freed inmates who have participated in Shakespeare Behind Bars have returned to prison thus far. In Baltimore, a juvenile delinquency program has picked up the program, and it has seen a sixty percent success rate.
Whether your children are in elementary school, middle school, high school, or college, being young is tough these days. If we want to see a genuine cultural shift, we have to be able to teach the skills of nonviolence, mediation and self-reflection to students. Our youth must be key players in creating a more peaceful world.
“We lobby local representatives to advocate for the Department of Peace [legislation],” says Julia Simon-Mishele, the national managing director for the Student Peace Alliance. “Our members across the country are partnering with local community organizations that are affecting change in areas of violence prevention. We work on campuses with students and communities to educate about nonviolence and really begin a discussion about peace on both a domestic and international level.”
For Simon-Mishele, helping the Global Peace Alliance is more than just impacting the community she lives in; it’s made an impact in her life as well.
“The two hours I spend every week with my chapter have created so much of a positive drive in me, and I know others feel the exact same way,” she said. “It’s just this atmosphere of knowing that you belong to a community that is as passionate as you are about making a difference. That has such an effect on our ability to reform and it’s been absolutely fantastic.”
People are also seeing the passion and drive the students have, and it is pushing for a change in their lives as well.
“The idea of the Department of Peace is something that resonates with so many youth who’ve grown up surrounded by violence in their communities or with wars abroad. We’re not just working against war; we’re really for peace. That makes people feel better about what they’re doing…instead of just driving ‘against’ something.”
Staplegon agrees, saying, “Little by little, people are gravitating towards these things…and the shift that needs to happen throughout the country and globally because we’re not just looking at us. The consciousness has been raised through the efforts of people in terms of the little things that we can actually do right now to turn [it] around. Everything we do affects everything around the globe.”
For more information about the Peace Alliance, check out www.thepeacealliance.org or www.afdop.org. Andrea Verdin is a San Diego native who enjoys watching the sunset and looks forward to learning how to play the bass and surf this summer.