North American Peace Alliance Lobbies for Peace

NAPA Lobbies for Peace
News Alert: 5/12/04

(Courtesy of TruthForPresident.org)

North American Peace Alliance Lobbies for Peace

A new organization, the North American Peace Alliance (501-c4 nonprofit), will promote direct political lobbying efforts in support of the Department of Peace legislation (HR 1673), introduced into Congress by Rep. Dennis Kucinich and 48 co-sponsors in April 2003.

The North American Peace Alliance is a nonpartisan citizen action and lobbying organization, which will work to foster positive, proactive change toward the creation of more a nonviolent and peaceful world. NAPA will promote programs, projects, and legislation that create foundational transformation of the social and political conditions that cause and perpetuate violence of all types, both domestically and internationally. NAPA carries out its mission through direct and grassroots lobbying, education, training programs, conferences and other activities. NAPA is dedicated to creating the social and political will to dismantle the root causes of violence in the world.

The Department of Peace (DoP) seeks nothing less than the transformation of American society by making non-violence an organizing principle. Domestically the DoP would be responsible for developing new policies that address issues such as; child abuse, domestic violence, the mistreatment of our elderly and cultural and racial acts of violence. The International agenda of the DoP will be to research and analyze foreign policy and make recommendations to the President on how to address the root causes of war. Additional responsibilities of the DoP include military crisis intervention and foreign policy advisement. The establishment of a Department of Peace would ensure a just approach to any crisis and establish a non-pre-emptive approach to U.S. Foreign- Warfare policy. The DoP would inform the President and Congress on actions to intervene before violence begins, and new ways to improve National Security and secure the protection of human rights.

The DoP will also facilitate the development of Peace Summits at which parties to a conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to promote a nonviolent communication and conflict prevention and resolution. The DoP will develop new programs that address society's challenges.

NAPA believes the Dept. of Peace is worthy of our collective support. Over the course of history people have always dreamed of peace but we have never had a broad-reaching, well-funded, systemic structure to help make it a reality. The consequences of not doing so are almost too difficult to imagine. The Dept. of Peace 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. From international conflicts to domestic issues such as gang, school and domestic violence, the Department of Peace would systematically root out the underlying causes of violence in our culture.

NAPA's press materials include this urgent statement: We have lived with war, violence and abuse for far to long. By establishing a Cabinet level Department of Peace, we have the unique opportunity to confront the root cause of these evils and the ability as a society to build a safer world.

NAPA's initial focus will be to conduct training workshops around the country to teach citizens how to effectively lobby their respective Congresspeople and Senators on behalf of the DoP. A major kick-off event is planned for May 19, 2004 in San Francisco.

Among the nationally known people who will appear at this event are John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., author of The Millionth Circle and Goddess in Everywoman, and Professor Michael Nagler, founder of Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC Berkeley and author of Is There No Other Way: the Search for a Nonviolent Future.

For more information about NAPA, call Matthew Albracht at (707) 836-1284, or email to office@renaissancealliance.org

For related material on this story, please see the following sources:

http://www.dopcampaign.org
http://www.dopcampaign.org/emails/sanfraninvite.htm
http://www.renaissancealliance.org
http://www.dopcampaign.org/read_bill.htm
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/departmentpeace.php

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