2016 Pies for Peace Action

Peace_Pie_logo_2016Use your Voice to Make Peace a Higher Priority

  • Longing to see more peaceful responses to the collective challenges we face?
  • Wanting to help shift our culture towards policies that promote harmony & understanding, and implement effective peacebuilding?
  • Participate in our 12th annual Mother’s Day Campaign: “Peace Deserves a Piece of the Pie” by dropping off a pie and peace pamphlets, or setting up a meeting, at your local congressional office.
  • Every year, peace supporters across the nation take pies to their local Congressional offices with a message that “peace deserves a piece of the pie.”  We are talking of course about making peacebuilding a higher budget and policy priority. It’s always a fun and connecting activity, and we’ve found it to be very effective.

One of the most powerful things you can do to effect change and motivate elected officials is to visit their offices. Using your voice in this way can help on many levels.

Join people across the country the week before or after Mother’s Day by visiting your local Congressional offices with pies and a message that Peace, and in particular the work of peacebuilding, deserves to be a far more substantial investment in our nation and world. We are asking for at least 1% of our federal budget “pie chart” to go towards peace. You can either set up a meeting to talk with your elected official’s local staff, or simply drop off some of the finely-tuned materials that you can print from our website, along with a pie.

  • Help make a difference with the Youth PROMISE Act, a powerful model for peacebuilding in our own hardest hit communities. Let’s honor our mothers by caring for America’s children who are in most need of support.
  • Share why you’d like to see something at the level of a Department of Peacebuilding, where our nation advances the principles and practices of peace in every realm.
  • Ask your Member of Congress to support the GAP-Act, the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, giving permanence to several important, proven international peacebuilding programs.

One of the reasons it’s easy to get co-sponsors [in Congress] is many people, when I say ‘Youth PROMISE Act,’ say ‘oh, I’ve heard about that from my constituents, sign me up.’ … The Peace Alliance, talking to their local Members of Congress and hopefully their U.S. Senators, are making the fact that we are getting co-sponsors… much more likely. We really appreciate the support.
~Congressman Bobby Scott, comments after a previous Mother’s Day campaign, when the House bill jumped from approx. 100 co-sponsors to over 200 in a period of a few weeks.

pie-chartRead our Tips page to Learn more about how to participate in this action.

You do not need to be an expert! Being willing to go visit, bringing material on the issues, and possibly sharing your basic care and concern will have an important impact. And, if you can have a few friends join, you will increase your impact. We will coach and provide you with everything you need (except the pie!). 

Over the years, our efforts have made a significant difference. We have helped increase co-sponsors, budgetary allocations, awareness, and knowledge of the need for more peacebuilding investment.

Together, we will make a difference!

You can review our tips and tools here to learn more.

juliawardhowecropMOTHERS DAY & PEACE

In the 1800’s, Julia Ward Howe, original advocate for “Mother’s Day” and writer of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” nursed and tended the wounded during the civil war. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. The devastation she witnessed called her to “rise up through the ashes and devastation” calling out for a day dedicated to peace: Mother’s Day. In her various social capacities Julia tirelessly worked for justice throughout her life. Read more about the history of Mother’s Day including the full Mother’s Day proclamation Julia wrote.

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