This has been an exhilarating week. Tuesday's inauguration was a high point, at least for me, and hopefully just the beginning of a new era in our country. Already our new president is moving forward with integrity and taking positive steps to get our country back on track.

One important step President Obama (I love saying that!) could take would be to pick up on an idea of former presidential candidate Senator Dennis Kucinich. Earlier in the now not-so new millennium, Kucinich conceived of a Department of Peace (DoP), which he introduced into the House of Representatives.

Here is an excerpt from that legislation:
"We are in a new millennium, and the time has come to review age-old challenges with new thinking wherein we can conceive of peace as not simply being the absence of violence, but the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness, of respect, trust, and integrity; wherein we all may tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness . . . toward developing a new understanding of, and a commitment to, compassion and love."

A commitment to compassion and love seems in perfect alignment with the stated intentions of our country from its earliest beginnings. One Webster's definition of love is "brotherly concern for others," which sounds a lot like what our forefathers might have intended with "insure domestic tranquility" and "promote the general welfare."

The Peace Alliance, a 501.(c)4 citizen action organization to establish a U.S. Department of Peace was established in March 2004, taking up the mission of "empowering civic activism for a culture of peace." Their goal is to build peace and develop the tools for identifying conflict before it erupts into violence.

You can join them in sending postcards to President Obama (who has requested citizen input), or perhaps attend their Washington, D.C. conference in March. You can also write to your state representatives encouraging them to support HR 808, currently before the U.S. House of Representatives, which would be the first step in establishing an official DoP.

As John Lennon famously sang, "War is over, if you want it." Perhaps with our government reaching out to previously disenfranchised nations, and to nations with which we have clear and abundant disagreement, using our words instead of our weapons, the idea finally has a chance of becoming a reality.

Photo courtesy of Jayel Aheram