September 21 is the International Day of Peace. Residents of this area have a special way of celebrating this event by attending a ceremony at the Convocation Center at JMU at which Archbishop Desmond Tutu will deliver a public lecture and receive the JMU Gandhi Center's top honor, the Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award.

Desmond Tutu is Archbishop emeritus of South Africa and is the recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize. Known for his vigorous anti-apartheid activism in his native South Africa, he is revered as a moral voice around the world.

He is being recognized by the Gandhi Center for his contributions to peace, encouragement of a nonviolent approach to human relations and world affairs, and efforts to promote reconciliation and forgiveness among people.

Events in the United States, as well as around the world, continually remind us that the use of force alone is not the answer. Law enforcement is not the long-term solution for crime in this country. Military force, even by the most powerful nation on the planet, cannot win the peace abroad.

As we approach the time for yet another important decision about the use of military force in Iraq we hear more and more voices recognizing that the situation in Iraq calls for a political solution. So how do we encourage a nonviolent approach to human relations?

Several months ago Christine Johnson, Virginia State Coordinator of the Campaign for a U.S. Department of  Peace and Non-violence had a timely op-ed piece published in the Daily News-Record, entitled “Nation Needs Department of Peace.” She was responding to a May 28 editorial which poked fun at the proposed legislation (House Bill 808) which would create such a Department. How many of us had heard about this proposal? Here is a brief summary of the proposal for a U.S Department of Peace.

The objectives of the Department of Peace would address the epidemic of violence in this country and around the world.

Experts and leaders in conflict resolution will have an institutional platform to respond to the complexities of the growing disease of violence. (The Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization consider violence a serious public health issue.)

What we need is a comprehensive framework that studies the root causes of violence and then tracks, evaluates and identifies programs that have a positive effect on reduction and prevention of violence. Local contributors to this study should certainly include the internationally acclaimed Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University and Gemeinschaft Home, a transition facility for ex-offenders.

Domestically, the Department of Peace would help develop curricula to educate students in grades K-12 to resolve conflict peacefully. Recent developments in neuroscience help us understand that ages four and five are the optimum ages for us to begin to understand and learn to control our emotions, a major component of youth violence.

Also a Peace Academy would be created to provide training and education to civilian and military peacemakers, targeting both domestic and international violence.

How much more violence do we need to experience before we become pro-active instead of reactive?

For more information about the proposal for a Department of Peace and Non-violence, go to www.thepeacealliance.org.

The Sept. 21 Gandhi Center award ceremony at the JMU Convocation Center begins at 7 p.m.; doors open at 5 p.m. Archbishop Tutu’s public lecture is entitled, “Goodness is Powerful.” Free admission, first come, first served.

For more information about the award ceremony and lecture by Archbishop Tutu, go to www.jmu.edu/gandhicenter/.

— Larry Hoover is a resident of Bridgewater.