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Peace of Pie: Burlington County Times |
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Form Department of Peace, moms urge
By DAVID LEVINSKY
Burlington County Times
Harking back to the early origins of Mother's Day, two mothers from Burlington County visited the offices of local congressmen yesterday to lobby for legislation to create a federal Department of Peace.
As part of their message, Anne Creter and Linda Hayes, both of Riverton, delivered what they called “peace pies” to U.S. Reps. Jim Saxton, R-3rd of Mount Holly, and Rob Andrews, D-1st of Haddon Heights.
The women said the pies represent the small portion of the military budget that a federal Department of Peace would require.
“We want to let them know that peace wants a piece of the pie,” said Creter, a representative of the South Jersey chapter of the National Peace Alliance, a Michigan-based advocacy group devoted to promoting peace-building policies.
Creter said the pie deliveries are part of a nationwide campaign to lobby congressmen to support legislation to create a peace department. The department would be charged with researching and analyzing foreign and domestic policy and recommend to the president ways to address the root causes of war and peaceful methods to diffuse crises.
“We feel what's missing is the infrastructure to create peace. This department would create that,” Creter said.
Legislation creating a Department of Peace has been introduced in the House by Dennis J. Kucinich, D-OH, and in the Senate by Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
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Creter said they chose to deliver the pies as a Mother's Day statement because the holiday originally honored mothers whose sons were killed during the Civil War.
They said the cause of world peace inspired poet and social activist Julia Ward Howe, author of the lyrics to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” to establish a day of peace in Boston to honor mothers in 1872.
The women recited a poem Howe wrote as a Mother's Day proclamation at the offices of both congressmen.
“It's just as relevant today because we're still looking for ways to find peace,” Creter said.
Saxton spokesman Jeff Sagnip Hollendonner said the meeting with the women was civil and the ongoing U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were not discussed.
“They talked about the need for the federal government to have a peace department to work toward creating world peace,” Hollendonner said. “We certainly agree it's a worthwhile goal and we appreciated them coming to our office.”
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