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Article Last Updated: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 3:31:31 AM PST

Department of peace is urged

Lawmaker reintroduces bill that now has 47 sponsors for creation of cabinet-level organization

By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

Organizers hope to attract hundreds of people to a forum Wednesday night in San Francisco to work toward creation of a cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace.

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich,D-Ohio, first introduced a Peace Department bill in 2001, the culmination of years of work with peace activists. He re-introduced the bill in 2003, and it now has 47 co-sponsors, including six from the greater Bay Area.

But Wednesday's event marks a new phase of the effort -- the launch of the North American Peace Alliance (NAPA), a nonprofit group that will coordinate a national grassroots and lobbying campaign for the Peace Department.

"We really think right now, given the state of affairs in the world ... it's as important a time as ever to be talking about peace in a positive, proactive way," said organizer Mike Robbins. "It's not an anti-war movement, it's really a pro-peace movement."

The event includes a 6:30 p.m. reception and 7:30 p.m. program Wednesday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco, 1187 Franklin St. at Geary in San Francisco. It's open to the public, with no fee. Scheduled speakers include Professor Michael Nagler, founder of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as authors John Robbins and Jean Shinoda Bolen.

The idea for a federal Department of Peace has East Bay roots -- then-Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Oakland, sought some peaceful counterpart to the Defense Department during the Vietnam era.

But Kucinich's bill envisions a more comprehensive agency. Domestically, it would be charged with developing new policies on issues such as child abuse, domestic violence, mistreatment of the elderly and cultural and racial acts of violence. Internationally, it would research and analyze foreign policy and make recommendations to the president on how to address and eradicate war's basic causes while securing human rights.

Among the bill's co-sponsors are...(Full Story)