Friday June 2nd, 2006 

Department of Peace
 
The People find and declare:   

WHEREAS, conflict occurs in relationships occasionally, between individuals, neighbors, and nations; and military conflicts in the twentieth century alone have killed millions of people, most of them innocent civilian women and children; and
 
 WHEREAS, the United States has appropriated more than $480 billion for Defense and Homeland Security for FY2006, spending more than the next twenty nations combined on military preparations; and that it has conducted a unilateral, preemptive war against Iraq without the approval of the U.N. and many of our allies, with supplementary costs for this war of more than $240 billion; and
 
 WHEREAS, non-violent methods of resistance have been successful in conflicts where violence did not succeed, ranging from India's struggle for independence, to breaking down the walls of the Cold War, to the great strides made towards integration in the United States; and implementing nonviolent approaches for domestic programs and foreign mediation requires broad education, understanding, research, and a concerted effort; and
 
 WHEREAS, there is no single government entity assigned to report to the American people the status of efforts to achieve these goals; and
 
 WHEREAS, H. R. 3760 has been introduced into the United States Congress, to establish a Department of Peace, a bill which has 63 cosponsors; and introduced into the United States Senate, as S. Bill 1756 with 2 cosponsors; and
 
 WHEREAS, promoting a culture of peace and nonviolence has been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through passage of a resolution declaring an International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children 2001-2010;
 
 
 THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the people of the State of Washington hereby direct their Congressional Delegation to support and cosponsor a Cabinet level Department of Peace & Nonviolence to be established to study and advance peace and nonviolence as the organizing principles in all human relations from families and neighborhoods, to courts and congresses, both nationwide and internationally; and
 
 THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Congressional Delegation of the State of Washington strengthen security in the United States and the world community by:
 1. Rejecting a foreign policy of preemptive, unilateral war; 2. Working with the world community through the United Nations; 3. Supporting international agreements such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions, the Small Arms Treaty, the International Criminal Court, the Land Mines Treaty, and the Kyoto Climate Treaty; and certified copies of this Resolution  be transmitted the State of Washington’s Congressional Delegation and the President of the United States.