{"id":7817,"date":"2019-05-04T21:51:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T01:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peacealliance.org\/?p=7817"},"modified":"2019-05-04T21:53:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T01:53:02","slug":"this-mothers-day-prioritize-peacebuilding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacealliance.org\/this-mothers-day-prioritize-peacebuilding\/","title":{"rendered":"This Mother\u2019s Day Prioritize Peacebuilding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mother\u2019s Day was originally a call for a day of peace<\/strong> by Julia Ward Howe<\/a> after she experienced the horrors of war while tending the wounded during the American civil war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Make this Mother\u2019s Day a call for our nation to prioritize peacebuilding<\/strong> by establishing a U.S. Department of Peacebuilding, by seeking solutions to prevent gun violence, suicide and other types of violence, and by practicing peace in our personal lives, the community, schools, a more humane justice system and internationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peacebuilding wants a piece of the federal budget pie.<\/span>\u00a0 Participate by:<\/span>
\n<\/strong>1) meeting with members of Congress in District; and
\n<\/strong>2) calling the Mother’s Day 11 for HR 1111.<\/strong>\u00a0 (See details below.)
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BUDGETS REPRESENT PRIORITIES<\/strong><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

Budgets represent priorities<\/strong>. According to the National Priorities Project, the current President’s budget<\/strong> priorities FY 2020 go even further than last year’s request in bloating the already enormous military budget, requesting $750 billion for the military — an increase of 5%, or $34 billion, from the 2019 enacted budget.\u00a0 That would put 57% of the $1.3 trillion discretionary budget into the Pentagon and nuclear weapons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While pumping up all these facets of the militarized budget, the current president’s budget “is proposing a 23.3% cut to the State Department<\/strong>, America’s major means of preventing military conflict through diplomacy, bringing it down to $42.8 billion.\u00a0 This is all while proposing massive cuts to agencies that actually meet human needs<\/strong>, like the Department of Education (down 12% to $62 billion), Housing and Urban Development (down 16.4% to $44.1 billion), Department of Transportation (down 21.5% to $21.4 billion), and the Department of Labor (down 9.7% to $10.9 billion).” – Trump’s FY2020 Budget Request Bloats Militarized Spending – and Slashes Actual Human Needs.\u00a0 (See\u00a0<\/em> www.nationalpriorities.org<\/a>)\u00a0 <\/em>How we spend our money matters.<\/strong>
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ACT FOR PEACEBUILDING<\/strong><\/u><\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Investment in peacebuilding policies and programs saves lives and money and improves quality of life.\u00a0 Make Mother’s Day a time to reaffirm that peacebuilding matters and that peacebuilding wants a piece of the federal budget pie.<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/p>\n

You can do this by completing one or both of these actions<\/span> and sharing this email:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Schedule a \u201cMother\u2019s Day Pie\u201d meeting<\/span> with your member of Congress and your Senators<\/strong> (and\/or their staff members) to tell them peace wants a piece of our federal budget pie and urging them to cosponsor Congresswoman Barbara Lee\u2019s Department of Peacebuilding Act of 2017 (HR 1111) (Congressperson\u2019s office can contact diala.jadallah@mail.house.gov<\/a> or 202-225-2661 to sign on).<\/p>\n