Thursday, July 16, 2009

How to call your Congressional Reps for the Department of Peace

The reasons for calling are similar to those for writing a letter to Congress. The difference is that calling your senators and representatives takes less time, so you can do more. For this action I am asking that you call both of your State's senators and the Representative for your district.

To find out the contact information for your members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, visit: www.congress.org. Or if you know the names of your Representative and Senators, call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Currently there are no Senators sponsoring the bill, but many representatives are. To find out if your member of the House of Representatives is already a co-sponsor of the Dept. of Peace legislation, click here.
After you have the numbers, you may want to practice what you will say in the phone call. To help you, here are a few scripts you can use. I borrowed them from the Student Peace Alliance Website.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Hi, my name is ______ I’m a constituent of Senator/Congressperson ______’s district. I’m calling to urge him/her to become a co-sponsor, if he/she is not already, of the Department of Peace legislation currently in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The bill number for the House is H.R. 808.

I would like to receive a written response as to his/her position on this issue. Thank you for taking the time to hear my thoughts on this important piece of legislation.


SENATE (There is currently no bill in Senate. Ask them to introduce the legislation!).

Hi, my name is ______ I’m a constituent of Senator ______’s district. I’m calling to urge him/her to introduce legislation to establish a U.S. Department of Peace into the Senate. For reference, the Senate bill number for the previous congress was S. 1756.

Thank you for taking the time to hear my thoughts on this important issue.


The staffer answering the phone will probably ask you to repeat your name or confirm your zipcode. This is so they can track where people within a specific district are calling from.

WHEN YOU HAVE MADE YOUR CALLS, please comment on this section of the blog to tell us what it was like, or write me an email!

Good Luck!

How to write a letter for the Department of Peace (or any issue you are passionate about):

There are lots of reasons to write letters to your congressional reps. First, you may have never done it before. Well, participation is fundamental in our democracy. This is a great way for kids and adults to see how that really works.
Second, staffers in each office count the number of phone calls and letters they receive about a given issue. Each letter written in counts for a certain number of constituents' opinions. For example, the government has figured out that if one person feels strongly enough about something to write in about it, they assume that maybe 100 people in their district agree. 3 letters = 300 people. Not too shabby, huh?
Third, writing a letter gives you the opportunity to think about how larger social issues relate to you. We are all familiar with donating our money or volunteering our time, but we rarely have the opportunity to sit down and write about why a certain law or program is important and how it will effect our lives.

That being said, here are some tips:

1. Choose a story or personal example.
We all come to the table with different experiences and reasons for wanting peace. Spend some time thinking about an anecdote that you are comfortable sharing that explains why peace is important. Strong stories are true and heartfelt and are related to the goals of the legislation.

2. Highlight your story with a statistic.

Find some statistics that relate to your story. The Peace Alliance has compiled some here. If you look up your own stats, be sure to include where the statistic was from and make sure that it is credible. Statistics help staff members who are reading your letter connect your personal story to the larger social needs of their constituency.

3. Mention the part of the bill that would support a solution to the issue in the story.

This allows a staffer or representative to see exactly how the bill would address the issue you are most connected to without having to wade through the legislation, which they may not be willing to do at this stage in the Bill’s life.

4. Close with a statement about the imperative need for supporting peace and nonviolence
in this country and thank the Senator or Representative for his or her service or work. Make sure you mention HR 808.
This is just common courtesy. Even though we as constituents often feel distanced, remember that these people are in office WORKING FOR YOU. When you write a letter or make a phone call, you aren’t burdening your congressional representatives, you are helping them do their job more effectively. By mentioning the bill by its number, HR 808, you make it easier for staffers to find the legislation if they want or need to look at it more closely.

5. Include your full name and address because staffers keep track of which constituents are carrying on correspondence with the office.



Here is an example letter I wrote containing a story I shared while I was in DC on the Hill talking directly with a Staffer for Senator Kennedy’s office.

Dear Senator,

I am writing you to ask you to introduce a bill that would create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace in our government. Currently, HR 808 has been introduced in the House and I am hoping that you will be the person to carry that legislation into the Senate.
I would like to share with you a story that shows why we need a Department of Peace. Domestic violence has a devastating effect on the children and families of this country. While I was teaching in an elementary school, I learned that one of my students witnessed her own father attack her mother and try to kill her by cutting her throat. While her mother survived, both mother and daughter were irreversibly impacted by the attack. My student would bully and attack other kids. Several times she wrote notes or stories about killing herself. As a teacher, I did not have the power or resources to support her and her family as they struggled with the consequences of the violence she had witnessed.
According to the American Psychological Association, a child's exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next (Violence and the Family: Report of the APA Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family,1996). The costs of perpetuating abuse patterns add up, the Center for Disease Prevention and Control estimates health-care related spending alone at $4 billion a year. As you can see, the cost of domestic violence is exponentially high.
The Department of Peace Legislation is 80% domestic and focuses on giving police officers, teachers, families and community members the tools they need to give people nonviolent alternatives to violent behavior. By supporting HR 808 and legislation like it, you will save money and save lives.

Thank you for your time,

Good Luck!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Participate in an action today!!

I am asking friends and family to participate in my work for peace in one of four ways:

1.) Become a monthly donor to the Peace Alliance by pledging a minimum of $10 a month for the next 12 months. This ensures that the Peace Alliance will be able to sustain itself in the coming year. (more about becoming a Peace Partner here.)

2.) At the same time, I recognize the economy is, at best, not so hot. Therefore, if you feel like a monthly commitment is unrealistic for you at this time, I ask that you consider giving a one-time donation of an amount that you feel comfortable with.

Your donations support the Peace Alliance in many different ways:

For some of us (myself included), a monetary donation just isn't possible.

3.) Instead, I hope that you can donate a half hour of your time to hand write and send a letter to your Senators, asking them to support the Department of Peace and Nonviolence and to introduce the legislation in the Senate. You may also choose to write a thank-you note to representatives who are currently co-sponsoring the bill. Tips on how to do this will be included in a later post, or you can contact me directly.

4.) If a half hour is just too much, I hope you can find seven minutes to call your Senator's office and let their staffers know that you support HR 808 (a bill to create a Department of Peace and Nonviolence) and that you hope they will consider introducing the bill into the Senate. Alternately you can send a fax through the Peace Alliance website, directly to your representatives office.

WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE TO DO IS RIGHT FOR YOU AND FOR ME. All I ask is that you join me in one of the four ways suggested here and consider sharing the experience in the comment sections of this blog, or with me via email or phone.

What is all this yammering about Peace?

You know that famous quote "Let there be Peace and let it begin with me?" Well, here I go. For the last two years I have been working closely with an organization called the Student Peace Alliance (SPA). SPA is the college and high school affiliate of a larger movement that is organizing a campaign for a Department of Peace in the federal government.

To be honest, I originally joined SPA because I wanted to get to know someone else in the club a little bit better (if you know what I mean). Since then, my involvement has extended far beyond what my generation calls "social networking." As a student, teacher, daughter, sister and friend, I have seen the real impact of violence on a personal level. As a member of the movement, I have also learned about the role that violence plays in contributing to economic, social and environmental unrest.

The Peace Alliance, and the Student Peace Alliance, is a movement of people who are actively seeking to create a Nonviolent society. From the top we are lobbying for legislation that supports peace and nonviolence and from the bottom we are working in our own communities to live nonviolently and to help others do the same.

THIS IS NOT AN ANTI-WAR CAMPAIGN. I am grateful for the sacrifice that men and women who are in the armed forces make for this country, and for the sacrifices their families and communities make in supporting them. I also believe that by practicing nonviolence we can find a peaceful end to conflicts domestically and abroad that will have a safer, more secure and happier outcome for us and the people who protect our country and way of life.

It is time for my to deepen my commitment to nonviolence by asking you to get involved and to let you know about the work I have been doing over the last few years. Please, click on the links above to learn more about the Peace Alliance and the work we are doing and supporting in this country and around the world. Post comments, ask questions, and participate in the action by becoming a donor or writing a letter to your representatives in Washington.

Peace.

Etta