Friends and colleagues in the work of peacemaking have three urgent reasons to call North Carolina senators:
- Yesterday the New START treaty left the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with 14-4 support. It will likely come up for a vote very soon, and neither of the NC senators has committed to how they will vote. This is a common sense measure to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia. For all the reasons outlined in the article below, and several others, this is the right thing to do. The benefits are clear and the costs of failure high. Please take a moment to call our North Carolina senators and spread the word to encourage others to do the same.
Click here
for a thorough examination and strong argument for the treaty as well as links to the full text. - The National Criminal Justice Commission Act (H.R. 5143/S. 714) has passed the house and has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The act would provide for a national review of our criminal justice system for the first time in 40 years. Importantly, this panel would have the authority to review the conditions of confinement for all prisoners in our criminal justice system. As such, the panel could issue recommendations for preventing the abuse of prisoners. Justice and peace are fundamentally intertwined, and finding ways to heal perpetrators rather than abusing them is part of the work of peace.
- The DREAM Act – Some might consider this outside the purview of peace work, but it is clear that immigration issues are one of the biggest areas of conflict in the US today, and real peace is inextricably bound up with justice. The DREAM act will provide a path toward citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. Though the issue is complicated (there are concerns about military recruitment among undocumented youth, for instance), the Council is in support of the Dream Act, and I am too. While you’re calling about New START, feel free to weigh in on the DREAM act as well.
For more on immigration reform from the Council’s Chris Liu-Beers, click here.
Senator Burr (202) 224-3154
Senator Hagan (202) 224-6342
David LaMotte
Program Associate for Peace
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