Sign our petition to the President and Congress. It is clear we need to make fundamental shifts in how we are organizing ourselves in America and around the world when it comes to dealing with violence and conflict — shifting towards systemic healing and restorative oriented approaches. This gets to the root cause of violence on the planet.
Are you feeling overwhelmed and confused? I certainly find myself there more often than I’d like. The current rash of terrorism impacting France, Lebanon and elsewhere, the waves of refugees fleeing the Mideast,Donate the violence in our streets, the calls for increased unspecified military spending… the entire barrage pains my heart and leaves me feeling unsettled and overwhelmed. To add to the mix we are beginning to hear holiday carols, catalogs over flowing our mailboxes, the constant bombardment of holiday commercialism, asking us via Black Friday to buy our way to joy and contentment. Somewhere there is a major disconnect and I think I’m feeling it!
This week marked the release of the 2015 Global Terrorism Index by the Institute for Economics and Peace. After a tragic few weeks of global terror attacks in Paris, Mali, Beirut, Baghdad and in many other places, it may be unsurprising that terrorism is reported to be on the rise. Our hearts of course break for all the victims of this senseless violence. We will re-double our commitment to the work of peacebuilding.
Major Sentencing Reform Legislation is advancing in the Senate, with a bipartisan bill, the Sentencing Reform and CORRECTIONS Act, S. 2123. While it is a compromise, it contains many very positive elements, and we want your help passing it. If Congress passes this bill, it would be by far the biggest shift in Criminal Justice policy in decades. And for once, it would be a substantial change for the better.
On our November Monthly Action Call, we will be joined by that champion of citizen empowerment, Sam Daley-Harris. This call will be on Saturday, November 14th at 1:00 pm ET, 10:00 am PT. All are welcome to call-in and participate.
We are so very pleased by what we accomplished together in Washington DC recently. A powerful few days and a remarkable group of people gathered from around our nation (and a few from other parts of the globe). All together, we visited over 100 Congressional offices, many included in-depth meetings on our primary peacebuilding legislation.