Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 2:20 PM
Subject: URGENT CALL TO ACTION - Dept. of Peace

Dear Friends,

Throughout this coming week we need your help to prepare for the introduction of Congressman Dennis Kucinich's Department of Peace (DOP) legislation in the House of Representatives. If you want this legislation to become a reality, it is CRITICAL to our grass roots campaign that we have your support. Below you will find three important steps you can take over the next week to help us start off with an impact. As well, you will find background on the legislation. Please forward this information to everyone you know. Together, we can make this happen!

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:

I. ON APRIL 8th, SET UP A MEETING IN YOUR HOME DISTRICT WITH THE OFFICE OF YOUR MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Recruit as many people as you can to attend this meeting with you. Nothing is more powerful than an in person visit. Hundreds of us will be in Washington DC meeting with our representatives. Along with your visits to local offices, we will blanket the nation with meetings in support of the bill, both in D.C. and beyond. Our goal is to have a meeting in every single Congressional district.

II. GET AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO CALL, FAX AND EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE on April 8th. Your job between now and April 8th is to make sure that everyone has the name and phone and fax numbers of their Congressperson (easy to find...visit www.Congress.org), and to call them on April 7th to remind them to make the call. It is a good idea for you to keep a list of the people who have agreed to make calls and the needed numbers in case they misplace the contact information. The U.S. capital switchboard can be reached at (202) 224-3121.

III. PRINT FLYERS (visit www.dopcampaign.org) Hand them out at Peace marches and post them in coffee houses, universities, churches, etc.

As soon as Congressman Kucinich "drops" the bill, we will post its number on our website. Between now and April 8th, email as many people as you can, giving them the information about the Department of Peace lobbying effort. Ask them to help us!

Most importantly, FOLLOW UP. It is not enough to merely let people know that the legislation is being introduced; our job is to lobby for it, so that it passes. Congress is a reactive body, but if our members of Congress do not hear from us directly, then there is nothing for them to react to. This initial phase of the campaign is critical to its success. The bigger the splash we have at the beginning, the better off the campaign will be in the long run.

Please send us an email to peace@renaissancealliance.org and let us know you will be a DOP Activist Leader. This means you will adopt your member of Congress and stay with this process for the duration of this legislative session. You will be contacted within a week, for follow up. We will give you a new action each month to forward the bill. On our "Take Action" page at www.dopcampaign.org, you will also find many additional ways in which you can participate in your community on an ongoing basis-- to help educate and lobby for this important legislation.

Be sure and check our website at www.dopcampaign.org for updates and new information. You can join our monthly conference call this Tuesday, April 1 at 9:30 pm est, 6:30 pst, where we will be talking about what you can do in the next week to help us create buzz in the media around this legislation. The call in number is (405) 244-5001, code 3100. Call in, you will then be prompted to enter the code.

There is something we can do. The time to do it is now.

"The time for peace is now. At the dawn of a new millennium, there is no better time to review age old challenges with new thinking that peace is not only the absence of violence, but the presence of a higher evolution of human awareness with respect, trust and integrity toward humankind. Our founding fathers recognized that peace was one of the highest duties of the newly organized free and independent states. But too often, we have overlooked the long-term solution of peace for instant gratification of war. This continued downward spiral of violence must stop to ensure that future generations will live in peace and harmony."

-Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Join our Campaign to create a Department of Peace in the United States government!

At this critical time in our nation's history, righteous action is the antidote to despair. Please participate in a powerful citizen lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace, sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. This bill establishes nonviolence as an organizing principle of American society, cultivating an array of peace-building policies and procedures. On April 8th, this historic legislation will be introduced for a second time; whether or not it becomes law is dependent on whether we, the people of the United States, take the time to make phone calls, lobby our Congresspeople, and in other ways create the political will to make it happen.

WHAT IT IS:

The Department of Peace focuses on individual and group responsibilities for establishing nonviolence as an organizing principle in society. The Department would focus on nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions, prevent violence and promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights. Domestically, the Department would be responsible for developing policies which address issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, mistreatment of the elderly, and other issues of cultural violence. Internationally, the Department would gather research, analyze foreign policy and make recommendations to the President on how to address the root causes of war and intervene before violence begins, while improving national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict.

You can read the latest draft of the proposed legislation at www.dopcampaign.org 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PEACE LEGISLATION

-Hold peace as an organizing principle in our society;

-Endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights;

-Strengthen non-military means of peacemaking;

-Work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from armed conflict, use field-tested programs, and develop new structures in non-violent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict, and structured mediation of conflict;

-Address matters both domestic and international in scope;

-Submit to the President recommendations for reductions in weapons of mass destruction, and make annual reports to the President on the sale of arms from the United States to other nations, with analysis of the impact of such sales on the defense of the United States and how such sales effect peace;

-Encourage the development of initiatives from local communities, religious groups, and nongovernmental organizations;

-Facilitate the development of peace summits at which parties to a conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to promote non-violent communication and mutually beneficial solutions;

-Develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school violence, guns, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations disputes;

-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled areas;

-Provide for the training of all United States personnel who administer postconflict reconstruction and demobilization in war-torn societies;

-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled areas;

Global Renaissance Alliance
P.O. Box 3259
Center Line MI 48015

www.renaissancealliance.org 
office@renaissancealliance.org 
(586)754-8105
(586)754-8106 fax

"Just as there is a so-called art of waging war, so there is an art of waging peace."
-Marianne Williamson

http://www.house.gov/defazio/020503DERelease.shtml 

DeFAZIO, PAUL INTRODUCE BILL TO REPEAL BUSH'S BLANK CHECK FOR WAR February 05, 2003
. The legislation introduced [2/5/2003] . would repeal Public Law 107-243. The bill text reads in total:
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
Section 1. Repeal of Public Law 107-243.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243; 116 Stat. 1498) is hereby repealed."
The legislation repeals the broad delegation of authority Congress gave to the President in October, to launch military action against Iraq. Under this legally-binding resolution, the President would have to return to Congress to seek authority to launch a preventive attack on Iraq.

H.J.RES.20
Title: To repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq
Resolution of 2002.
Sponsor: Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4] (introduced 2/5/2003)
Cosponsors: 37

Latest Major Action: 2/5/2003 Referred to House committee. Status:
Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.

COSPONSORS (37), BY DATE

Rep Paul, Ron - 2/5/2003 [TX-14]
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. - 2/5/2003 [CA-6]
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. - 2/5/2003 [OH-10]
Rep McDermott, Jim - 2/5/2003 [WA-7]
Rep Sanders, Bernard - 2/5/2003 [VT]
Rep Baldwin, Tammy - 2/5/2003 [WI-2]
Rep Lee, Barbara - 2/5/2003 [CA-9]
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. - 2/5/2003 [AZ-7]
Rep Owens, Major R. - 2/5/2003 [NY-11]
Rep Jones, Stephanie Tubbs - 2/5/2003 [OH-11]
Rep Oberstar, James L. - 2/5/2003 [MN-8]
Rep Waters, Maxine - 2/5/2003 [CA-35]
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. - 2/5/2003 [IL-9]
Rep Carson, Julia - 2/5/2003 [IN-7]
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. - 2/5/2003 [MI-14]
Rep Towns, Edolphus - 2/5/2003 [NY-10]
Rep Farr, Sam - 2/5/2003 [CA-17]
Rep Olver, John W. - 2/5/2003 [MA-1]
Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes - 2/5/2003 [DC]
Rep Serrano, Jose E. - 2/5/2003 [NY-16]
Rep Watson, Diane E. - 2/5/2003 [CA-33]
Rep Kleczka, Gerald D. - 2/5/2003 [WI-4]
Rep Davis, Danny K. - 2/5/2003 [IL-7]
Rep Filner, Bob - 2/5/2003 [CA-51]
Rep Frank, Barney - 2/5/2003 [MA-4]
Rep Rush, Bobby L. - 2/5/2003 [IL-1]
Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. - 2/5/2003 [IL-2]
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete - 2/5/2003 [CA-13]
Rep Capuano, Michael E. - 2/5/2003 [MA-8]
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy - 2/11/2003 [MO-1]
Rep Honda, Michael M. - 2/25/2003 [CA-15]
Rep Blumenauer, Earl - 2/27/2003 [OR-3]
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. - 2/27/2003 [NY-22]
Rep Fattah, Chaka - 3/6/2003 [PA-2]
Rep Lewis, John - 3/12/2003 [GA-5]
Rep McGovern, James P. - 3/18/2003 [MA-3]
Rep Rangel, Charles B. - 3/19/2003 [NY-15]