(10) 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 the human awareness, of respect, trust, and integrity; wherein we all may tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness and conditions which impel or compel violence at a personal, group, or national level toward developing a new understanding of, and a commitment to, compassion and love, in order to create a `shining city on a hill', the light of which is the light of nations.  ~H.R.2459  To establish a Department of Peace. (Introduced in House)

Yes! Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the environment.  In deed, Gore has opened the door for all people throughout the world to switch from exploiters to stewards of Planet Earth.  His title for his work, The Inconveinient Truth is brilliant. The fact that he combined words with images, art and science, the macro and the micro works to embed a new awareness of our responsibilities.  It isn't that his ideas are perfect, or 100% correct that matters to me. What matters to me is that new possibilities can now spill forth into reality ... Gore, and certainly others, have provided us with a new search image.  Now, we see and realize things within a much different frame.

Clearly, for me, one great possibility is for someone to be elected president in 2008 that would take the initiative to create a cabinent position for Department of Peace and that Mr. Gore would fill this position. 

Our patterns for what we see is beginning to change. The more, we  imagine the roles and responsibilities for the Department of Peace, the more we can move away from simply being against war.   In fact, if the stewardship for the Earth resides within the DOP, then we will even stop having a "war  on the environment" and begin attracting images of peace and prosperity of another kind.  It is time to change our patterns of thought and create a new language around peace and prosparity.  (Even Gore can use some help on how he languages the crisis on the environment!)

 William James  says that there will be no peace until there is a  Moral Equivancy of War. Make no mistake, war is fun and games for many.  It is the right thing to do ... a just cause to fight for one's beliefs. Look at all the popular video games about war and killing. Ah, the challenges!! 

I believe we are but at the beginning of an awakening as humans that there is a moral equivancy of war to be found in peace.  Rebuilding the earth as a work of art might just be our new game.  Learning the art of collaborative design and development is no simple task and it is not for the faint hearted.  It will take gigantic collaborative, imaginative  actions to attract ourselves into this new and very different paradigm.  A Department of Peace can help us gain a foothold in this new paradigm.   In my Google searches for DOP, I found many links, all of them, in my mind, very nacent of what the department can offer.  Even the most sophisticated is too little for what we as humans can rise to, should we choose to make it so.  Let's go for it!