FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Patty Kuderer, Communications Director
206-910-2422, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

WHAT TO GIVE DAD? HOW ABOUT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Washington, D.C., May 30, 2007 – This coming Father’s Day, dads nationwide will decline the usual panoply of ties, golf tools, and cologne for a gift you’d never think of giving – a letter to the editor discussing the importance of HR 808, legislation in the House of Representatives that will create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

The Student Peace Alliance (SPA), the youth-led extension of the Department of Peace movement, is taking the lead in this national letter-to-the-editor campaign. “As students,” said Aaron Voldman, Director of the Student Peace Alliance and a junior at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, “we are all too aware that the roots of violence were planted a long time ago and today we bear witness to the impact. We are determined to be part of the solution by calling for a Department of Peace that will address the root causes of violence.”

The SPA was founded in July 2006 as a distinct organization within The Peace Alliance, the national nonpartisan organization leading the grassroots effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace. It already has over 30 chapters at universities and high schools around the country with plans to add more yet this year.

The Father’s Day Campaign comes on the heels of The Peace Alliance’s successful “Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie!” action day held just before Mother’s Day, during which citizen activists nationwide delivered pies and information regarding the urgent need for a Department of Peace to more than 250 Congressional offices. The Peace Alliance has citizen activists in all 50 states, many of whom are expected to join the students in writing letters to the editor.

One such state is Maryland. “As the father of two teenagers, the only thing I want for my kids and for all children is that they are safe and grow up to experience happy, fulfilling lives,” said Ted Nunn, State Coordinator for the Maryland Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace. “We need to let people know that the U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence represents hope for that peaceful future, and we need to encourage mothers, fathers and all people who care about children to lobby their elected representatives to make this Department a reality.”

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.

“It’s time for people of all ages to recognize that we can make a difference in the world,” Voldman added. “And so we are calling for bold action to educate the community about the Department of Peace.”

HR 808 currently has 66 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. To find out if your Representative is a supporter or to learn how you can participate in the letter-to-the-editor campaign and the Department of Peace movement at large, visit The Peace Alliance website at www.thepeacealliance.org.