FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE: December 7, 2007
National Contact:
Patty Kuderer, 206.910.2422,
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Local Contact: Jerilyn Stapleton, 323.851-6364,
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LOS ANGELES VOTES FOR PEACE ON PEARL HARBOR DAY
By Unanimous Vote the Los Angeles City Council Endorses Legislation to Create
a U.S. Department of Peace.
Los Angeles,
CA – Los
Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, remembered Pearl Harbor
Day with an emphatic vote for peace as the Los Angeles City Council unanimously
voted to support HR 808, proposed legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives
to create a cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace. If established, the Department
will work proactively to reduce crime and violence here in the United States
and abroad. The resolution now goes to the Mayor for signature.
“With Los Angeles on board, our nationwide city council campaign continues
to gather momentum,” said Peace Alliance Board President Marianne Williamson. “Every
community in America will benefit when this legislation passes, as it increases
support for violence prevention programs statistically proven to reduce crime
and violence in our homes, schools, and communities. We need a Department of
Peace, and it's gratifying to see local governments taking the lead."
According to the
resolution, introduced by council member Bernard C. Parks, “…we
are now in a new millennium, and the time has come to review age-old challenges
with new thinking wherein we can conceive of peace as not simply being the
absence of violence, but the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution
of the human awareness, of respect, trust, and integrity.”
Terry Mason, State
Co-coordinator for the Los Angeles, Valley and Santa Barbara areas said, “ Los
Angeles joins 30 other governing councils around the country, including Oakland,
Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, West Hollywood and San Francisco in showing
this strong measure of support for true leadership towards proactively building
peace in our communities, country and the world. What better way to honor
Pearl Harbor Day than to show support for legislation that will strategically
create peace, both domestically in the streets of Los Angeles, and work to
end the beginnings of all wars.”
Domestically, the Department will research, propose and facilitate practical,
field-tested solutions to reduce and prevent violence. It will provide additional
financial and institutional heft to strengthen and complement our current approach
to violence, focusing on prevention through multi-layered strategies, including
increased funding for local programs already proven effective at reducing and
preventing violence. A Peace Academy, on par with the Military Service Academies,
will train civilian peacekeepers and the military in the latest nonviolent
conflict resolution techniques and approaches.
Internationally, the Department will research and analyze foreign policy and
recommend to the President ways to address the root causes of war. The Department
will also provide expert advice to the President on nonviolent means of diffusing
or dealing with international crises.
“This legislation to establish a Department of Peace will help to stop
violence against women, getting to the root causes of domestic violence, sexual
assault, and gang violence by supporting programs to prevent future violence
of this nature. Teaching school children nonviolent communication skills to
solve their conflicts before they escalate into violence will build a more
peaceful and safer society,” said Jerilyn Stapleton, Congressional District
Team Leader in California’s 28 th district and Los Angeles City Council
Resolution Team Leader.
The legislation is currently co-sponsored by 68 members of the U.S. House
of Representatives.
The Peace Alliance
is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization leading a growing grassroots movement
active in all 50 states to create a U.S. Department of Peace. For more information
on this legislation and the campaign, please visit www.thepeacealliance.org
Photo available upon request.
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