Honor Mother’s Day by Telling Our Leaders to Invest in Peacebuilding

Honor Mother’s Day by Telling Our Leaders to Invest in Peacebuilding

Started
May 1, 2010
Petition Closed
This petition had 2,872 supporters

Why this petition matters

Started by The Peace Alliance

It's NOT TOO LATE to sign! Citizens activists will be meeting with Senators and Representatives all week. Your signature will arrive at just the right time!

 

Early advocates of celebrating Mother's Day in the United States envisioned it as a day of peace, to honor and support mothers who had lost sons and husbands to the carnage of the Civil War. In 1870 - nearly 40 years before it became an official U.S. holiday in 1914 - social justice pioneer Julia Ward Howe issued her famous Mother's Day Proclamation, which called upon mothers of all nationalities to band together to promote the "amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace."

This May, at a time when our country is fighting a costly war abroad and our own communities are torn apart by violence and over-incarceration, it's time for Mother's Day to return to its roots.

We must let our leaders know that "Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie!"

In honor of Mother's Day, citizens all across the country will be delivering pies (along with a federal budget pie chart showing the miniscule current investment in peacebuilding) to the offices of Congressional Representatives and Senators to push for a greater federal investment in peacebuilding.

In particular, we are asking our elected officials to co-sponsor and actively push for two landmark pieces of peacebuilding legislation currently before Congress:

The Youth PROMISE Act (H.R. 1064 & S. 435): A bipartisan bill that funds and implements the best policy recommendations to reduce youth crime and violence through proven prevention and intervention practices, such as mentoring and after-school programs. The bill targets communities with the highest rates of youth crime and gang activity and empowers local communities with control over the use and oversight of resources, while holding communities accountable for their funding through measurement of cost, savings and effectiveness.

The Department of Peace (H.R. 808): The most comprehensive bill in Congress to date that creates a Cabinet-level department to prioritize violence prevention and peacebuilding efforts in the Executive branch of our government.

Whether you plan to visit your elected officials or not, you can make a difference -- and support those who are making office visits -- by signing the petition below!


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