[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3279]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 808, ESTABLISHING THE DEPARTMENT OF PEACE AND 
                              NONVIOLENCE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAZIE K. HIRONO

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 6, 2007

  Ms. HIRONO. Madam Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 808, establishing 
the Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
  At a time when we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the 
war in Iraq, which the majority of the American public no longer 
supports, there is a growing call for a diplomatic and political, in 
other words, a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
  The establishment of the Department of Peace and Nonviolence, with 
its emphasis on education and dispute resolution through peaceful 
means, sends a clear message to our citizens and to the rest of the 
world that our country recognizes and values the peaceful resolution of 
conflicts and differences and that these methods should be emphasized 
to resolve conflicts at both the individual and national levels.
  The Department of Peace is not a new idea. My esteemed and highly 
respected predecessor from the State of Hawaii, first Representative 
and then Senator Spark M. Matsunaga, proposed a similar institution 30 
years ago as the Vietnam war waged on. After three decades of 
unresolved conflicts, worsening international relations, and seemingly 
endless wars around the world, the time has come to bring this great 
idea to life.
  I fully support H.R. 808.

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