Give Peace a Chance – Now!
by Christine Clarke • Long Island

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)

In 1969 my cousin Jimmy, then a soldier serving in Vietnam, wrote a letter to his sister about having killed a young Vietnamese soldier “up close” that day. Jimmy was deeply moved at having spoken to his “enemy” in the last minutes, as the young stranger lay dying. They spoke in French, a second language for both of them. Just four days later, as his letter arrived in New York, we were notified that Jimmy had also been killed.

Jimmy’s extraordinary encounter with the “enemy” opened my eyes to the brotherhood of man more than all of my church teachings. And his death thrust upon me the immediate understanding that the adult leaders of this world could make massive errors. I gravitated to the anti-war movement, and sought out others who hated the War as vehemently as I did. There were many of us, and as the death toll rose, there were more and more angry voices. Then, the long never-to-be-won war was over, and countless American families like ours were left with a smooth black wall of names and silence. Standing before that unfathomably long listing of names, I have imagined the family of that young Vietnamese boy, grieving beside me.

The senselessness of that War sent me into a long sleep of civic void. For years I watched the larger world through peripheral vision, my eyes focused on the intricacies of my own personal life, and my heart growing my own personal peace. Recently, however, I was once again deeply moved to dream of peace on a large scale. It happened while I was watching, mouth agape, how quickly our entire Congress got swallowed up in the thought of war with Iraq. While many of us said, hey, wait, what weapons of mass destruction??? It was done.

Like Rip Van Winkle, I woke up and walked back into town. Looking for a way to make a difference, I was amazed to find that leaders in our country have presented us a way to focus on peace in a positive, strategic, and permanent way. There are currently two bills in Congress- H.R.3760 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and S.1756 in the U.S. Senate, that, if passed into law, will establish a United States Department of Peace and Non-Violence. This historic legislation will augment our current problem-solving modalities, providing research-based and proven nonviolent solutions to the problems of conflict, both domestic and international. It will implement proactive approaches toward violence reduction, and address symptoms of violence before they are unleashed. It will move our domestic violence, gang violence and child abuse issues to a national level, and look at making our prison system a true rehabilitation system. The bill will include a cabinet level position, and training for our troops on peace-keeping methods. It will put a system in place to institutionalize peace, and will enable peace to become a national power.

It has never been more necessary for us, as a people, to retain and rebuild our leadership position in the world. We want to be much more than just the nation whose largest urban industry is prison-building. The institutionalization of the Department of Peace will be a strong statement to the world that our citizens truly want to be that beacon of light we had once set out to be. We need just 2% of the $400 billion dollars a year of military expenditures, to effectively run a U.S. Department of Peace.

The Peace Alliance organization sponsors an active grass roots effort in all 50 states, for passage of this important bill, and has educated thousands throughout the country to become powerful citizen activists. However, this positive, pro-active and urgently needed legislation will pass into law only under the condition that massive citizen interest makes itself heard in the halls of Congress. Read the bill, and take a moment to envision it passing into law. I hope it will inspire you to make your voice heard, as it did me.

Anti-war activity may be necessary, but will not be a solution for permanent peace. As Creations Magazine publishers Neil and Andrea Garvey discussed in the Oct/Nov ‘06 issue, in regard to the Law of Attraction, “Whatever is on your mind, you are attracting and manifesting.” The absence of war is not peace but a vacuum, and it will be filled by something. A U.S. Department of Peace will point us in a direction of peace and non-violence even in a time of war, and will fill the vacuum in a time of peace.

For inspiration, to read the bill, and find out how you can help: thepeacealliance.com. Local LI contact: mlg2000@optonline.net

Chris Clarke volunteers with the Peace Alliance, a non-partisan citizen action organization. She has been a special educator, school administrator, and college professor, and is currently project director for the NY Early Intervention Program's statewide quality assurance initiative.