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Peace is Possible
A Conference on Establishing a U.S. Department of Peace
November 5th, 6th and 7th, 2004 Berkeley, California

Scheduled Keynote Speakers:
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Marianne Williamson, Marshall Rosenberg
Special musical appearance by Grammy winning Keb' Mo'
and more...

Dear Friends,

Please join us November 5 - 7 in Berkeley, California for our "Peace is Possible" conference. We now have a historic opportunity to establish a U.S. Department of Peace.

The timing of this peace conference is significant - it is the weekend immediately after our national election. Regardless of what happens, this is a critical time to create a powerful grassroots citizen's peace campaign. Sessions will be held at the Martin Luther King Auditorium.

We aim to work collectively to help pass HR1673, the Department of Peace legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives. The purpose of this Cabinet-level department would be to research, facilitate and articulate nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflicts.

The Department would provide the American President with a much needed compliment to a problem solving approach that focuses primarily with symptomatic rather than casual issues. By understanding and addressing the root causes of violence, we can predict and help nullify the myriad of hostilities threatening our stability; we can improve national security, help protect human rights and help de-escalate armed international conflict.

Not only will the Department of Peace represent strong governmental policy, but it will save the American taxpayer billions of dollars spent needlessly on war and unrest. The Department is an idea whose time has come, yet the idea will not become a legislative reality unless each of us does our part to show up and make it happen.

Be part of the solution, join us in Berkeley on Nov. 5th.

To learn more about this legislation and how to get involved, visit our website at www.DoPcampaign.org.

Click here for more information and to Register Now!
Join friends throughout the nation by visiting http://www.dopcampaign.org/events/novconf.htm
Sign up to attend the whole conference, or for specific days.
Including tickets for Friday night with Kucinich, Williamson and Keb' Mo'

At the Conference:

Re-engage in the democratic process
Hear amazing keynotes and diverse panel discussions
Participate in the dialogue and Q&A
Meet and connect with citizens from around the country working for peace in effective and focused ways.

WAGE A PRE-EMPTIVE PEACE:

- Discover how 2 percent of the annual defense budget can go toward proactive policies that dismantle the sources of domestic and international violence.

- Establish a U.S. Peace Academy as sophisticated and effective as the U.S. Military Academy.

- Learn how we can approach gang violence, racial and hate crimes, and even international conflicts with psychological and emotional powers as effective, and in many cases more so, than the application of brute force.

- Help move the American political dialogue to a higher level conversation regarding the realities of both war and peace.


We hope to see you there!

Register Now!
http://www.dopcampaign.org/events/novconf.htm

It isn't enough to talk about peace.
One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it.
One must work at it.
~Eleanor Roosevelt

EMAIL LIST: To join our email list for updates, send a blank email to: subscribe-3536@en.groundspring.org

Department of Peace Campaign
PO Box 3259 - Center Line, Michigan 48015 USA
(586) 754-8105
www.DoPcampaign.org -- info@DoPcampaign.org

Peace in the Middle East - whoa that is a toughie!

You have millennia of sheople being led around by the nose while abusing their mothers and daughters on both (or all eight or nine) sides of the issue and then there is all that oil that corpserists backing the US are in need of.


I suspect there needs to be real ecumenicism and the religions must be forced (which will require Bush or someone also admittting all religions say the same things) to say so. And then it will take years of re-programming before the land so full of holes and ass-holes begins to deserve any recognition as a Holy Land rather than a playground for Holy Empires.

Then I would suggest that we use Free Energy or alternative energy sources and begin making it clear there is an abundance of energy all around us. If we had to we could simply get Helium III from the moon for some purposes that the Tesla (Newman, Farnsworth, Fleischmann-Pons, Solar, Bearden and Vacuum etc) energy did not find application suitable to match the requirements. This would diffuse the arbitrageurs who love unrest more than a little and be detrimental to the oil cartels (Bushco).

Finally and most unlikely if people continue to believe the history they are taught in school - We must remove special status for people who hide behind corporate or national veils. It was only recently that corporations were given superior rights to any individual. At the same time we must reduce national interests while increasing local autonomy. The futurists like Toffler have been right about this happening in Europe but they could have explained why the plan set in motion in the 19th Century would lead to the EEC.

This same plan might be necessary if Nations are to continue in their present sovereign (derived from Kings who were said to be Divine) status. I would hope that will not happen but it is apparent in the words of Woolsey and Benett that it is the plan. It is in fact the way that Kissinger Associates have laid out the NSS document that George II is calling a War on Terra.


On the other hand if people started learning the Hegelian Dialectic of history - then real change could occur. Then standing armies would be outlawed and women would be free.

Who has justified Peace over War? Do we have a right to Peace over War? Sometimes war is a good thing. It makes people feel more alive and makes people consider more about what their lives mean to them. Too much peace deadens the human psyche. There are too many people on this earth anyway, so how else to control the global population than by war and famine? War can be a good thing. It is the dark that balances the light, and some might say it is the light to combat the darkness of peace. Peace can be weakness. Pray that whatever peace we enjoy is not a sign of weakness, for we must possess a certain strength in order to wage worthy wars. Should we not view times of peace as but a prelude to war? War can be invigorating. Many of the foot soldiers in previous wars speak of the horrors of war, but is this not a sign of weakness on their part? Those who are strong enough realize the usefulness of war. Those who are strong enough willingly engage in war. Pray we remain strong and continue to grow stronger. Those peace preachers are really weak and feeble and wish to avoid war because they have not the strength. Is this what we wish to impose on the rest of society? Weakness? No, we must remain strong, we must recognize the utility of war for cleansing our society of the weary and weak. Let the peace preachers preach. Nature has other designs in mind, and it is Nature who has the final word in all matters.

There are not too many people - the problem is in the stupifity of the people who will not study and learn.

“Do you not think I have not just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable?” - Gaius Julius Caesar (102-44), Reported by Plutarch, in Parallel Lives.

The family of Margaret Hassan, the British aid worker taken hostage in Iraq, tonight said they feared she had been murdered by her captors.
In a statement - which coincided with a claim by Al-Jazeera television that it had received a video showing the killing of a woman believed to be Ms Hassan - her family said: "Our hearts are broken. We have kept hoping for as long as we could, but we now have to accept that Margaret has probably gone and at last her suffering has ended. Our prayers and thoughts are with our dear brother in law Tahseen."

The statement went on: "Margaret was a friend of the Arab world, to people of all religions. Her love of the Arab people started in the 1960s when she worked in Palestinian camps, living with the poorest of the poor and supporting the refugees.

"For the past 30 years, Margaret worked tirelessly for the Iraqi people. Margaret had only goodwill towards everyone. She had no prejudice against any creed. She dedicated her whole life to working for the poor and vulnerable, helping those who had no one else.

"Those who are guilty of this atrocious act, and those who support them, have no excuses. Nobody can justify this. Margaret was against sanctions and the war.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, has said that government experts had been examining the video to determine whether it was genuine and that it "appeared to show Margaret Hassan has been murdered".

In a statement released tonight, Mr Straw described the murder of "a woman who has spent most of her life working for the good of the people of Iraq" as "repugnant".

He expressed his sympathy and condolences to her family, who had been told that although it was still not certain, the video evidence indicated that she had been killed.

Ms Hassan, who has joint British and Iraqi nationality and had lived in Baghdad for some 30 years, was seized on October 19 while on her way to work at Care International, the charity where she was country director.

She had appeared in video tapes, released by her unknown captors, calling on the British government to withdraw its troops from Iraq. In a series increasingly desperate appearances, aired on al-Jazeera, she was seen weeping and pleading for the British people to save her life.

In one video, she said she did not want to die like the hostage Ken Bigley, who was beheading by Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Her kidnappers then threatened to hand the aid worker over to Zarqawi if their demands were not met within 48 hours, but hopes were briefly raised when Zarqawi's group reportedly called for her release.

Care International released a statement saying: "It is with profound sadness that we have learnt of the existence of a video in which it appears that our colleague Margaret Hassan has been killed.

"We are shocked and appalled that this has been the apparent outcome of her abduction. We want to express our deepest sympathy to Mrs Hassan's husband Tahseen, and to her family," the statement continued.

"Mrs Hassan was an extraordinary woman who dedicated her life to the poor and disadvantaged in Iraq, particularly the children. The whole of Care is in mourning. Through her courage, tenacity and commitment, Mrs Hassan assisted more than 17 million Iraqis living in the most difficult of circumstances. Everyone who met her was touched by her personality and compassion."