Peace Department Proposal Provokes Bellicose Reaction
by Willem Lange in A Yankee Notebook
April 8, 2007

ORFORD, NH – Assuming you've never been there, what do you visualize when you read the words, "Fairmont, Minnesota"? Middle America, right? Cornfields in the summer and subzero blizzards in the winter. Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders. White. Lutheran. Republican.

You wouldn't be far off. Fairmont is located just south of I-90, about halfway across Minnesota and just north of the Iowa line. You can't get much closer to middle America than that. Population around 11,000. A lot of hog farms; the county is among the top ten pork producers in the nation. You'd probably also think of Fairmont as a fairly peaceful place – far from the hysteria of the nation's capital, remote from threats of terrorism, steeped in traditional virtues, and guided by gentle souls like Garrison Keillor's Father Emil and Pastor Inquist.

That's apparently what the members of the Fairmont Peace Club thought, too. The club's been around for about 45 years, discussing ways of promoting peace among individuals, groups, and nations. Nobody bothered them, probably because they didn't bother anybody.

Then they heard of a campaign by a group called the National Peace Alliance to persuade Congress to create a Department of Peace, which would be a counterpart to the State Department and the Department of Defense (which until 1949 was called, more accurately, the War Department) and promote peaceful resolution of conflict among nations.

The idea is hardly a new one. It was first proposed by Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Pennsylvania physician and professor who in his time was regarded by his peers as a pain in the neck because of his condemnation of slavery and capital punishment. He wrote a controversial essay titled "A Plan for a Peace Office for the United States." In over 200 years, the essay hasn't gained much traction or many adherents. But there is currently a bill in Congress, endorsed by about 70 members, that would create a Department of Peace, which would operate on a budget equal to 2% of the Pentagon's, and would attempt to foment peace through the development of sophisticated research into conflict resolution, education and training (a Peace Academy equivalent to West Point), and the reduction of violence.

When the members of the Fairmont Peace Club asked their city council to endorse the idea of a Department of Peace, the council acceded unanimously, without debate. Who could argue with the ideal of promoting peace?

Well, it turns out that quite a few people can. When the local newspaper reported the council's adoption of the resolution, many peaceful Minnesotans were outraged. A Vietnam veteran saw a malignant agenda: "These Communists are trying to do it again." Besieged by phone calls, the council scheduled a meeting to reconsider their action.

None of the resolution's critics appeared to have read the actual bill proposing the creation of the Peace Department. Instead, they voiced fears that have become all too familiar in this most powerful nation in the world. A Department of Peace would let the rest of the world know that we have become afraid to fight The United Nations would assume control over United States sovereignty. There was much use of the vaguely threatening word, "they." The red-baiting Vietnam vet feared that Americans would become "a bunch of wusses." The council reversed its earlier decision by 3-2, and the good folks of southern Minnesota returned to their status quo.

I was particularly struck on Easter morning, as we Christians celebrated the resurrection of the "Prince of Peace," by the anomaly between most Americans' belief that we are a "peace-loving nation" and the fact that our military budget is larger than all those of the rest of the earth's nations combined. While fulminating over the nuclear ambitions of "rogue nations," we – the only one ever to use nuclear weapons – are spending billions on developing a new generation of warheads. Our legions (many of them now mercenaries) are either in action or stationed all over the world, "promoting peace." I think of the famous Pax Romana, which ended as the resources to support Rome's vast repressive armies dried up, and the empire collapsed from within, like a dying star. Moral considerations aside for the moment, we're now in the same situation, prosecuting our wars on money borrowed from creditors that are fast becoming our economic rivals.

Far too many of us who think this is madness are silenced by name-calling and intimidation. I've occasionally been invited to leave the country if I don't like it; but that's not what we were taught to do in our social studies classes. We're supposed to fulfill our obligations as Americans by pointing out, when we think it true, that the emperor is naked; that people in dark suits or bemedaled uniforms may, in spite of their sober mien, be talking pure rot; that a constant and reflexive resort to power invariably causes atrophy of the imagination; that killing people in the pursuit of peace and justice doesn't work. They never seem to appreciate it the way they ought to.

However slim its chances of success, the bill to create a Department of Peace deserves our support. We probably could fund it simply by terminating the contracts of Halliburton and the Blackwater mercenary army now in Iraq. The rest of the world might see us, for a change, not as "afraid to fight," but as truly interested in peace, rather than dominance. Don't be afraid to be thought or called a wuss. It takes real courage to stand up for your beliefs when you're armed only with peaceful intentions, your wits, and an olive branch.

About Willem Lange

From 1968 to 1972 Will directed the Dartmouth Outward Bound Center. From 1972 until his “retirement” in 2007, he was a building and remodeling contractor in Hanover. He's an adopted member of the Dartmouth Class of 1957.

In 1981 he began writing a weekly column, "A Yankee Notebook," which appears in several New England newspapers. He's a commentator or host for Vermont Public Radio and both Vermont and New Hampshire Public Television. His annual readings of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol began in 1975 and continue unabated. He's published several audio recordings and five books and received an Emmy nomination for one of his pieces on Vermont Public Television.

In 1973 Will founded the Geriatric Adventure Society, a group of outdoor enthusiasts whose members have skied the 200-mile Alaska Marathon, climbed in Alaska, the Andes, and Himalayas, bushwhacked on skis through northern New England, and paddled rivers north of the Arctic Circle.

He and his wife, Ida, who is the proprietor of a kitchen design business, have been married since 1959. After forty years in New Hampshire, they moved recently to East Montpelier, Vermont. They have three children and four grandchildren.