What do Benjamin Banneker, Benjamin Rush and George Washington all have in common? Washington and Rush are better known as two of the central and critical revolutionaries whose autographs help pen the Declaration of Independence in 1776. What is less well known was that these first Americans were proponents of "Peace as a strategy for security". Rush's original writings called for establishing a "Peace Office" on equal footing with the War Department -- noting the importance to the welfare of the United States of "an office for promoting and preserving perpetual peace in our country". In George Washington's 1796 farewell address he request the strategy of "Peace" be used for "avoiding occasions of expense", to maintain inviolate the relations towards other nations and to support of tranquility at home and abroad".
Benjamin Banneker was a revolutionary in his own right. An African American freeman who carved America's first functional clock, Banneker was also an astronomer, farmer, mathematician, surveyor and publisher. In 1791, Banneker was an assistant to Major Andrew Ellicott, the surveyor appointed by President George Washington to lay out the boundaries of the District of Columbia. When French engineer Pierre L'Enfant abandoned his work on the nation's capital and took his plans with him, Banneker was able to reproduce the intricate survey plans in two days from memory and became known as "the man who saved Washington".
Banneker was the first African-American, to publish a farmer's almanac. In the 1793 almanac, surgeon and statesman Benjamin Rush proposed the appointment of Secretary of Peace and the establishment of an official U.S. Department of Peace. Out of this evolved a document that has been somewhat obscured in American history: a plan for a Peace Office of the United States that would parallel a Department of War.
For two hundred and ten years, that proposal to establish a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence has lain dormant. However, today, in the halls of Congress and in the grassroots of America, this seminal proposal has been revived. Beginning in 2001 this transpartisan political movement has continued to gain momentum with bills in both the House and the Senate advocating the establishment of a Department of Peace and Nonviolence. HR 3760 was introduced in the House of Representatives on September 14, 2005 and Senate bill S 1756 was dropped on September 22nd 2005. Most recently the House bill was re-introduced via HR 808 on February 5, 2007 with 65 co-sponsors quickly signing on.
Like the premise of the early founders, the legislation calls for:
A Secretary of Peace, who will advise the president on peace building needs, strategies, and tactics for use domestically and internationally.
- The creation of a Peace Academy, a sister organization to our military service academies, which will build a world-class faculty of peace building experts. They will analyze peace building strategies at the highest level, advise other branches of government, and facilitate the training of peace builders for domestic and international service.
- Funding to create and expand proven domestic peace building programs in our communities, such as mediation trainings for police, firefighters, and other emergency services personnel; alternative dispute resolution techniques, peer mediation and nonviolent communication programs in public schools, etc.
- Providing ways to meaningfully prevent conditions of conflict before violence erupts.
- The institutional platform necessary to successfully apply American genius to dramatically alleviate our national and global epidemic of violence.
The idea of peace building is deeply rooted in our American history and experience. At present, more than 300 colleges and universities award degrees in Peace building and Peace Studies. Two examples are Notre Dame's Peace Studies Masters program and the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. In early February the Peace Alliance held its annual conference in Washington where effective grassroots lobbyists met with over 250 congressional leaders rallying support for the bill. In two weeks the Student Peace Alliance will hold its first national conference at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts to bring together student and youth leaders from around the country in order to develop peace building and organizing skills and effectively create positive change in their communities. Since its launch in 2006, the Student Peace Alliance has grown to include groups on 30 college and high school campuses around the country.
To learn more about the establishment of the U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence and the Student Peace Alliance, visit www.thepeacealliance.org
Learn who your Congressional Representative is by visiting www.Congress.org
Support the call for the Establishment of a Department of Peace and Nonviolence by contact your Congressmen and Senators at http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/peacealliance/campaign/?campaign_KEY=902