New Bill

There was a PEACE Alliance convention this past weekend in Washington DC. I went. The people who speak and attend these things always impress me. They really are a bunch of brainiacs, with a ton of professional letters behind their names - MS, PhD, MSSW, MA MFT, JD, etc.

I think I'm going to just put some random letters behind my name to show my education in the school of life. My bachelors just seems shallow by comparison. How about Garine Isassi, M.O.M. (Masters of Motherhood), R'n'Rer (life degree in rock n roll), D.O. (Doctorate of Organization)??

At any rate, I learned a lot from the speakers there and especially admire those who are working "in the trenches" against violence and hate. Organizations like battered women's shelters and Barios Unidos (an anti gang group). The founders of Challenge Day did a presentation and I think that every High school in America should have this program for the students AND the parents. So much of the stereotyping comes from the parents too. I'm going to talk to our school board about getting them in our district.

The biggest item to report, though, is that the Dept of Peace bill was changed to reflect more specifically where money would go. Now the bill asks for $10 billion a yr, with 85% of that to support domestic programs that prevent violence. Considering that we spend about $300 billion a year dealing with the AFTERMATH of violence within the borders of the United States,$10 billion seems like a bargain to prevent it from happening in the first place.