[2062] in peace2
Department of Peace, Homeland Security Name Alternative
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Tue Nov 19 00:21:42 2002
Message-Id: <200211190521.AAA11266@gold.mit.edu>
To: peace-announce@MIT.EDU
cc: mark.lupisella@gsfc.nasa.gov
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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 00:21:29 -0500
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
A friend of my family sent this along. If you are
particularly interested in working on this, please let me know
or contact Mark directly. In short, there is a letter
writing campaign to cnn to suggest "Dept of Peace" and a
much needed campaign to get an international treaty against
the militarization of space.
hope = resistance,
Aimee
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 23:42:00 -0500
To: alsmith@MIT.EDU
From: Mark Lupisella <mark.lupisella@gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Department of Peace, Homeland Security Name Alternative
Hi Aimee. left a phone message about this. Not sure about your
email, so trying this one. Trying to connect to various networks on
this, so if you or other you know might be interested, send around,
or some version your comfortable with. An email to CNN suggesting
this alternative name and noting the Kucinich bill may get it aired
and get visibility on the bill. I assume you're connected to a broad
network of folks that might be interested in helping out on this.
Also want to talk to you about the Space Preservation Treaty which is
an effort to ban all space-based weapons - submitted to Canadian
Foriegn Minister and Prime Minister for a treaty conference as they
did with Landmines. It's a stretch, but folks I'm working with are
pretty well connected and making progress and a letter writing
campaign from Americans to the Canadian Prime and Foreign Minister
will make a difference. They're saying they need to know there's
some support in the US. Kucinich has also introduced a companion
bill to this treaty and will be pushing the treaty conference idea in
Canada when he goes there soon to talk to a large group - sponsored
by previous Defense Minister of Canada and others.
www.horizonsproject.org and www.peaceinspace.com (for the institute
that's been working closely with Kucinich and many others -
especially in Canada - on the treaty conference idea.
Talk soon.
Mark
This is the email I sent to CNN and other peace groups I've been
working with. Send emails to cnn@cnn.com.
Lou Dobbs invited suggestions from viewers for Homeland Security
Dep't name alternatives since there was a survey saying something
like 80% think it's not a good name. I found that striking.
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has proposed a bill with 40+ co-sponsors for a
Department of Peace. That's an alternative many would like to see.
"Homeland Peace" could be the dominant theme of such a department
while still acknowledging the broader global web of causality that
contributes to global and homeland security since the two are
obviously related. This bill deserves media attention regardless,
given the dominating war talk and tenuous geopolitical climate we
find ourselves in.
Another alternative is the Department of Defense. "Homeland
security" is literally their job, and I'm concerned that this hasn't
been raised more publicly. The National Security Advisor's Office
and related offices are also supposed to satisfy a broader
coordinating and synthesizing function. This was touched on early
on, but quickly dropped as a public criticism. DoD, the NSA office
and related Executive Branch Offices are perfectly capable of more
broadly coordinating as needed. That's what they're supposed to do.
DoD is the most powerful, most well funded Gov't organization by an
order of magnitude. For there to be such a hard push for a new large
expensive Gov't agency raises the suspicion that certain political
factions do not want to reflect on the failings of the DoD and the
Exec Branch and want instead to further leverage this highly
emotionally charged attack to expand military related spending and
the military industrial complex in general.
Perhaps a Department of Peace could do a better job.
The U.S. spends roughly 5 times as much as any other single nation
spends on defense, or over 1/3 rd of total global military
expenditures.
The U.S. spends over 50 times as much money on the military as all
its potential "rogue" state enemies combined (Iran, Iraq, Libya,
Syria, North Korea, and Cuba).
The U.S. spends roughly twice what all its NATO allies spend on defense.
Perhaps a Department of Peace could do a better job.
Email address: Mark.Lupisella@gsfc.nasa.gov
Business phone: 301-286-2918
Business fax: 301-286-2325
Business address: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 584
Greenbelt Rd.
Greenbelt, MD 20771
