Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich is tonight's guest on the national Peace Alliance Orientation call (January 8th at 9pm ET, 6:00 PT) according to Matthew Albracht of The Peace Alliance.
Kucinich was the primary author and main champion of the bill to create a U.S. Department of Peace, beginning in July of 2001, two months before 9-11. He reintroduced the bill in every Congressional session since then until he retired in 2012.
This is a monthly orientation call which also includes introductory background information about The Peace Alliance, and about Peace Alliance Action Teams, and is designed to welcome and inform new potential Team Leaders and Members. It is also a chance to learn about The Peace Alliance's history and approach, and will invite listeners to consider the possibility of joining or forming a Peace Alliance Action Team or a Student Peace Alliance Action Team.
Kucinich has been a guest on Rob Kall's Bottom-Up radio show, and he continues to be a force for positive cultural change through his new organization Kucinich Action, which supports candidates for public office at various levels -- from federal to local -- with the aim of having positive effects in areas such as peace, economics, healthcare, and the environment.
Kucinich is one of the most recent in a long line of patriotic (and matriotic) Americans promoting the establishment of a Department of Peace. Selected highlights include:
1979
Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D-HI) re-introduced a bill, S. 2103, "Department of Peace Organization Act of 1979" to create a U.S. Department of Peace.
1943
Senator Alexander Wiley (R-WI) called for the United States to become the first government in the world to have a Secretary of Peace.
1935
Sen. Matthew M. Neely (D-WVA) wrote and introduced the first bill calling for the creation of a United States Department of Peace. Reintroduced in 1937 and 1939.
1926-1927
Kirby Page, author of A National Peace Department, published a proposal for a cabinet-level Department of Peace and a Secretary of Peace.
1925
Carrie Chapman Catt, Founder of the League of Women Voters, suggested that a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Secretary of Peace be established as part of her public speech at the "Cause and Cure for War Conference." The conference took place in January in Washington, DC, and was hosted by a coalition of nine women's groups, the "National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War (NCCCW)" which hosted the annual conference for the next 16 years. The organization is now known as Committee on Education for Lasting Peace.
1793
Founding Father and signatory of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, published a persuasive essay titled, "A plan of a Peace-Office for the United States," in which he called for equal footing with the Department of War.
1783
George Washington called for the adoption of a "proper Peace Establishment."
