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Contact: Patty Kuderer, National Communications Director, The Peace Alliance
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MOMS, PEACE AND APPLE PIE

May 14, 2007. Washington, DC. This past Friday, moms and other citizen activists visited over 250 offices of Congressional representatives and senators with freshly baked pies in hand to urge support for HR 808, legislation that will create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence. According to The Peace Alliance, the organization sponsoring the nationwide nonpartisan "Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie!" action campaign, grassroots volunteers in 38 states from Maine to Arizona participated in what The Peace Alliance calls their largest Mother’s Day event yet to raise awareness and garner support for HR 808. The legislation currently has 65 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.

In Vermont, supporters delivered pies to the Burlington office of Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT-AL), where they were warmly received. One creative baker put a "peace dove" on her homemade pie. "We had an engaging conversation with Rep. Welch’s staff," said Barbara Padgett, the new Vermont State Coordinator for the Department of Peace campaign. "The American public has seen violence as intractable. We know that it is not," she added.

Padgett pointed out that the United States is currently home to many experts in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. "In the past 30 years, over 300 college and university programs have produced graduates with that expertise," she said. "A Department of Peace will provide the necessary infrastructure for these people to advise and recommend nonviolent solutions to our President and local and state governments on the most effective means of reducing and preventing violence."

Missouri State Coordinator Laurie Levin attended two meetings with staff from the offices of Representatives William "Lacy" Clay (D-MO-1st) and Todd Akin (R-MO-2nd). "Representative Clay is already a co-sponsor," Levin said, "and whole-heartedly supports this bill." While Representative Akin currently does not support the bill, Levin said that meeting, too, was constructive. "We had a wonderful dialogue with Representative Akin’s office, and his staff stated Representative Akin is for peace and reducing violence." Other Missouri members of Congress, including Representative Russ Carnahan (D-MO-3rd), son of the late Governor and former congressman Mel Carnahan, also received pies.

In Washington state, supporters visited with staff of several officials, including Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Dave Reichert (R-WA-8th). Representative Reichert told supporters ahead of time that he did not want a pie, so they brought him a "virtual peace pie" instead – a pie chart showing how little it would take to fund a U.S. Department of Peace.  "We discussed the need for a cabinet-level Department of Peace," said Ernie Jenner, the Department of Peace Campaign’s Congressional District Team Leader for Washington’s 8 th District, "and pointed out that for less than the cost of one month of war, we could get an entire year of peacebuilding."

Domestically, the Department of Peace will research, propose and facilitate practical, field-tested solutions to reduce conflict, providing financial and institutional heft to strengthen and complement our current efforts to deal with all forms of domestic discord and violence. It will promote and facilitate the education of students in grades K-12 on how to resolve conflict nonviolently through peer mediation, and provide for training in alternative dispute resolution techniques and nonviolent communication skills.

Internationally, the Department will advise the President and Congress on the most innovative techniques to establish and promote peace among nations, and will research and analyze the root causes of war to help prevent conflicts from escalating to the point of violence.

It will create a Peace Academy, on par with the Military Service Academies, to build a world-class faculty of peacebuilding experts, many of whom currently live in the United States. They will analyze peacebuilding at the highest level, advise other branches of government, and expand the training of civilian and military peacekeepers.

Supporters point out that peace is good for our economy, too. "The economic benefits may be best understood from this simple cost equation: one to jail equals two to Yale," Padgett said. "When we put dollars into teaching peacebuilding skills in the early grades, we empower a positive citizenry and obviously avoid the costs of all kinds of destructiveness."

For more information about that national campaign or HR 808, please visit www.thepeacealliance.org