A center of peace
The new headquarters for the United States Institute of Peace will be an impressive, soaring symphony of atria and wing-like structures. But the most stunning thing about the building will be its location. It will sit at the very heart of the nation’s self-image, on the northwest corner of the National Mall, facing the Lincoln Memorial and next to the memorials for the Korean and Vietnam wars. It will be a powerful symbol of the importance of studying peace in a place where the cost of war is all too present.
The formal groundbreaking for the building will take place Thursday. President George W. Bush, whose own place in history is so inextricably tied up with a war, will be a principal speaker. The others will be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as speaker of the House. It seems safe to say that the three speakers will have very different views of the woman for whom the institute named the library program that meets its research needs: a Montana Republican named Jeannette Rankin.
In November 1916, Rankin became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, nearly four years before the August 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment gave women everywhere in America the right to vote. In fact, she had played a major role in gaining the right to vote for the women of Montana in 1914. Once in the House, Rankin became the only member of Congress to vote against American entry into both World War I and World War II.
Though the institute itself is not yet a quarter-century old, its origins go back to the debates over the shape of our Constitution. The first actual proposal for an American institute for the promotion of international peace was made in 1792. Nearly two centuries later, in 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation creating the institute. Its goals include preventing and resolving violent international conflicts, promoting stability and development after conflicts, and increasing the worldwide capacity for managing conflict.
And now, with this new building, it will take an honored place on the National Mall. Congress has appropriated $100 million, and the institute has raised $25 million privately. In the years ahead, every citizen can play a role in that fundraising, however small. After all, as the presence of the building on the Mall will testify, peacemaking is every American’s business.
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