On the weekend of September 10 I attended a conference hosted by The Peace Alliance in Washington DC that truly changed my focus and my life. I have been an activist for many years and for the last four have been vociferous in my opposition to the Iraq war and to the current administration.

When I got to the conference I thought, great, all these like-minded people will be dying to hear my anti-war anti-government rhetoric. Well, surprise! When I started on my spiels there was polite silence and then the subject changed to what we could do that was positive instead of negative to effect change and promote peaceful solutions to domestic and international crises. After all who can be against peace?

The conference attendees were a wonderful mixture of people, Black, White, Hispanic, Muslim, Christian, Jew, men women and children, all coming together to promote peace through the formation of a Department of Peace. The Department of Peace is a bill calling for a cabinet level department funded by 2% of the military budget, to support our military with complementary approaches to ending violence. The Department will provide educational programs to help ameliorate domestic and international violence, school violence and conflict between law enforcement officers and the community. It will also establish an Academy of Peace as a sister to the Military Academy to train personnel in nonviolent conflict resolution.

The Department of Peace will not replace any existing departments but will offer an overall structure to a broad-based approach to making the work of peace a national calling. Wars and conflicts are beginning to be predicted through economic and social indicators such as child mortality, access to markets and populous voices in governments. Our international policies and strategies need to reflect and include this new knowledge as a means to implement preventative measures. Our presidents need to be provided with nonviolent alternatives to war.

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the first sponsor, has been joined with 59 other committed representatives and on Sept. 22 Senator Dayton (D-MN) introduced the bill to the Senate, very exciting news!

Speakers at the conference included Walter Cronkite, Judy Collins, Patch Adams, Ambassador John W. McDonald, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and Congressman Kucinich. Other speakers included:

Azim Khamisa whose 20-year-old son Tariq was killed by a 14-year-old gang member 10 years ago. Mr. Khamisa is remarkable; instead of seeking revenge he started a foundation in his son's name with the grandfather of the boy who pulled the trigger, to educate school-aged children on the dangers of gangs. They have both committed their lives to defeating the continuing cycle of violence in schools and have been incredibly successful. Before going through their 2-week program 85 to 90% of the students regard gang membership as the way to integrate socially and protect themselves from harm. After the program the percentage drops to between 10 and 20%.

John Titus, the father of Alice Titus who was a flight attendant killed on United flight 175 on September 11. He is a member of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an advocacy organization consisting of 180 family members and 4,000 supportive members, united in striving to break the cycle of violence for future generations by recognizing their common experience with all people affected by violence. Needless to say many tears were shed listening to Mr. Titus.

Another amazing part of the weekend is how 10 people from different parts of Virginia, few knowing each other, came together and have now formed a group with a strong spiritual connection to work for this incredibly important initiative. I am honored that they elected me to be the Virginia state coordinator and I hope that many readers will join me in working for a department that can really deliver what we need to achieve peace here and abroad. It can be done! All the solutions are there; all we need to do is find them.

To find out how you can become involved visit the National Campaign at www.thepeacealliance.com