PEACE IS PATRIOTIC
Call the “SUMMER 11 for HR 1111”
Members of Congress
Ask them to COSPONSOR
DEPARTMENT OF PEACEBUILDING
LEGISLATION
Please Call Between Today & July 25th
___________________________________________
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On July 11, 2001, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced the first ‘modern’ Department of Peace bill which recognized that international and domestic violence are interconnected. The root causes of violence and the root solutions for peace are interdependent. In 2013, California Congresswoman Barbara Lee became the sponsor of this legislation and renamed it the Department of Peacebuilding Act (DoP/ HR 1111).
Please take this summer action to add to the number of DoP cosponsors. HR 1111 currently has 27 cosponsors — let’s add to this by calling the “Summer 11 for HR 1111” (see list below) today and before the Congressional recess at the end of July.
This legislation makes peace and peacebuilding a national priority. This is part of our national DNA, with Benjamin Banneker — a free African American author, surveyor, farmer and naturalist — publishing in his Almanac during the 1790s an essay by Benjamin Rush — a signer of the Declaration of Independence — calling for an office of peace. “It is much to be lamented that no person has taken notice of the [Federal Constitution’s] total silence upon the subject of an office of the utmost importance to the welfare of the United States, that is, an office for promoting and preserving perpetual peace in our country.”
Throughout the history of this country, numerous peacebuilding bills have been introduced. Our Declaration of Independence provides that all are entitled to certain “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Peace is essential to all of these. Peacebuilding is essential to our existence and the existence of the earth.
As we commemorate 18+ years of work for a cabinet-level Department of Peacebuilding, 243 years since the Declaration of Independence and many years of work to prioritize peace in this nation, please call the “Summer 11 for HR 1111” and ask them to cosponsor the Department of Peacebuilding bill:
- Rep. Tony Cardenas* (CA-29) at 202-225-6131
- Rep. Dwight Evans* (PA-2) at 202-225-4001
- Rep. John Garamendi* (CA-3) at 202-225-1880
- Rep. Al Green* (TX-9) at 202-225-7508
- Rep. Josh Harder+ (CA-10) at 202-225-4540
- Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee* (TX-18) at 202-225-3816
- Rep. Carolyn Maloney* (NY-12) at 202-225-7944
- Rep. Joe Neguse+ (CO-2) at 202-225-2161
- Rep. Donald Norcross* (NJ-1) at 202-225-6501
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez+ (NY-14) at 202-225-3965
- Rep.Darren Soto* (FL-9) at 202-225-9889
Some of these members of Congress are former DoP cosponsors (*), some are new to Congress (+). Tell the Legislative Director, the Legislative Assistant or whoever you speak with that you are calling from the National Department of Peacebuilding Campaign and you want to prioritize peace in our nation by creating a cabinet-level Department of Peacebuilding. Thank the former cosponsors for supporting DoP legislation in the past. Ask these 11 members of Congress to join 27 other members of Congress who cosponsor HR 1111 as of July 4th by contacting Rep. Barbara Lee’s office ([email protected] or [email protected] or 202-225-2661).
In addition to the “Summer 11 for HR 1111,” call your member of Congress. Find Your Representative
Each call takes only moments. Please email [email protected] to report your calls.
For more information about the DoP legislation and peacebuilding, see at Department of Peacebuilding and Five Cornerstones of Peacebuilding.
Advocate on and walk in peace,
Nancy Merritt
On Behalf of the Department of Peacebuilding Committee and the DoP Campaign
Anne Creter, Karen Johnson, Nancy Merritt, Kendra Mon, Debra Poss, Pat Simon, Cetta Smart & Jerilyn Stapleton
