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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 6, 2008
Contact: Patty Kuderer, National Director of Communications
The Peace Alliance
206.910.2422,
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Congress to Get "Peace" of Pie for Mother’s Day
Department of Peace Supporters Plan Congressional Visits
Washington, D.C. – Department of Peace supporters across the country will celebrate Mother’s Day this coming Friday by delivering homemade “peace” pies to the local offices of their U.S. Representatives and Senators, urging support for landmark legislation to create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence. This is the fourth year the event has been sponsored by The Peace Alliance, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leads the growing grassroots movement active in all 50 states to create a U.S. Department of Peace.
The Peace Alliance expects to deliver an additional 435 pies at the nation’s Capitol, one for each member of the House of Representatives. "We will be thanking the 69 sponsors and co-sponsors of the bill, HR 808, and educating the rest on its importance," said Peace Alliance Managing Director Wendy Greene. The pies, representing the federal budget, will have a tiny slice cut to show how little money is needed – less than 1% of the federal discretionary budget – to create the Department.
"It’s time to give peace a piece of that pie," said Greene. "Right now, we spend relatively miniscule amounts of money on programs and policies that proactively address the root causes of violence, and billions upon billions dealing with the after-effects. It’s time to change that."
Why Mother’s Day? "Mothers around the world have long championed peace and paid the most brutal price for its absence," said Greene. "In fact, the desire for world peace was what inspired Julia Ward Howe to establish Mother’s Day in 1870."
Howe, a Civil War era poet, author and nurse, is most remembered for writing the words to The Battle Hymn of the Republic. But she is a favorite among Department of Peace supporters for dedicating the first Mother’s Day to peace activism.
In a fiery speech describing the horrors of war and calling for the first Mother’s Day, Howe asked,
"Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?"
The Peace Alliance is untroubled by the fact that Mother’s Day has become more about pampering mom than about peace activism. "Peace is the ultimate gift," Greene noted
For local information on how you can participate in the "Peace of the Pie" event, go to www.thepeacealliance.org .
About The Peace Alliance:
The Peace Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization leading a growing grassroots movement active in all 50 states to pass legislation to create a U.S. Department of Peace. The bill, HR 808, is currently co-sponsored by 69 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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 and Congress on nonviolent means of defusing or dealing with international crises and conflicts.
For more information on HR 808 and the campaign, please visit http://www.thepeacealliance.org.
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