Proposition One
WHY DO WE NEED IT?
ANSWER: To seek solutions to the awesome problems that face
everyone alive today. To help improve the likelihood that young
people will have a future.
We're all born into perilous times, with problems that threaten
life on this planet: nuclear and other genocidal weapons,
environmental pollution, human rights abuses. Most of these
problems are not of our personal making. Yet we all inherited
them. And we must solve them to survive.
Human beings created the problems; human beings can solve the
problems.
We hope you will think creatively about how you might use your energy, resources, and brains to help make the planet a safer place when you leave it than it was when you entered it.
Safety has never really resulted from violence or the threat of
violence. Dialogue - sharing ideas to come to mutual
understanding - resolving conflicts by reason and compassion -
these are the paths to genuine safety.
"National Security" is a terminal illusion.
"Peace through Strength" means order through the very real threat
of police violence or war. The United States alone expends over
two billion dollars each day on military and covert political
activities, and nearly a billion human beings try to survive on
$2 a day: Trickledown Economics in reality.
National leaders know that every artillery piece, every warship
made deprives the needy of sustenance. As President Eisenhower
said at his 1960 Farewell Address, "Indeed, people want peace so
much that one of these days governments had better get out of
their way and let them have it." Compare, 1 Samuel 8:5-18.
Most adults can recall a time or place when doors weren't locked
and people weren't afraid of strangers. Today, polls show that
U.S. citizens are more fearful of crime than ever in history.
Today, the government pursues policies, at tremendous taxpayer
and personal expense, which have resulted in a booming security
business and a fearful society where individual insecurity and
police excesses become ever more "normal." Ironically, the "Land
of the Free" now also imprisons a greater percentage of its
citizens than any other nation on earth, and politicians promise
to quickly increase that percentage considerably.
Are we fated to deserve the government we have, or can free
will and accurate information combine to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide
for the common prosperity, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to human posterity?
Proposition One (Peace through Justice) represents the only
current logical, legal alternative to the prevailing World Order
of peace through intimidation, imprisonment and death.
Congressional Co-Sponsors
Proposition One Intro