The GPOK Cooperative Council has approved the following statement of endorsement for the Department of Peace Campaign. We encourage Oklahoma Green Party locals (as well as Green Parties in other states) to consider similar endorsements.
For more info about the Department of Peace, see www.thepeacealliance.org/
For contact info on efforts in Oklahoma see this site.
Volunteers are needed, especially in Congressional Districts not currently represented (2, 3 and 4 as of this writing).
In keeping with its foundation on and commitment to the principles of nonviolence, social justice, grassroots democracy, and ecological wisdom, The Green Party of Oklahoma supports the proposed federal legislation (currently H.R. 808) to create a United States Department of Peace and Nonviolence and encourages the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation to sign on as sponsors. We further encourage the United States Congress to make the passage of this legislation a high national priority.
This legislation promotes peace as an organizing principle and endeavors to expand human rights by developing policies that will promote both national and international conflict prevention through nonviolent intervention, structured mediation and peaceful resolution of conflict. The proposed legislation will benefit all American citizens by eventually reducing the need for federal spending on the military, while supporting our troops with alternative approaches to peace building.
Further, the proposed federal legislation will benefit the State of Oklahoma by providing much needed assistance to the efforts by city, county, and state governments in coordinating existing programs that relate to the challenges of violence in our lives. The proposed legislation will provide new programs that address those expressions of violence in society that are not usually or adequately covered by current policies or law, including environmental violence; domestic violence; school violence; violence related to gangs and drugs; violence based on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation; as well as conflicts between the police and the community.
We commend and endorse the efforts of the Oklahoma Department of Peace Campaign, and similar campaigns across the country, which work towards the adoption of this legislation. We urge Oklahomans to join them in lobbying on behalf of the legislation, but not to wait for this outcome to embody its principles in their own lives and communities by practicing and teaching the philosophy of nonviolence.
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