Department of Peace

I first became aware of efforts to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace in 2001, when Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic representative from Ohio and candidate for president in 2004 and 2008, introduced a bill to do so. A version of that bill was brought up in Congress again every year from 2001 to 2011. There seemed to be a lot of energy behind it at the time, at least, more than I had ever been aware of. But it wasn’t a new thing. Wikipedia tells me that in 1793, Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, came up with a plan for a Peace Office that would be on the same level as the Department of War. The first legislative bill calling for a United States Department of Peace was written and introduced in 1935. People have been pushing this idea in Congress and reintroducing legislation for a Department of Peace ever since. I have no hope at all that we’ll see such a thing in my lifetime, but it is most definitely long overdue.