Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
38 Old Country Road
Garden City, NY 11530-1532
516-741-4360
516-741-4450 - fax
lialliancepeace@hoflink.com

"We can change the world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world." Dorothy Day

Where do we find the way toward peace? How do we move toward a world without war? What kind of America do we want? What are the responsibilities of the citizens?

These are the questions the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives has been asking for more than ten years now. And is in seeking answers that we have built a respected, vibrant peace organization on Long Island.

The Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan activist organization founded in 1985 to provide educational programs on peace and national security issues and to promote dialogue on the role and responsibility of citizens in determining national priorities and policies.

Long Island is home to many small yet vital peace and social justice organizations. Recognizing that, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "We go farther, faster, when we go together," many of these organizations joined together in December of 1985 to form the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives. We knew that having a permanent, professional peacemaking presence on Long Island would make communication and coordination among existing peace organizations easier and would enable us to accomplish collectively what we might not be able to achieve individually.

The mission of the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives is to educate Long Islanders about

• The nuclear arms race, the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, and nuclear disarmament.
• The need for major reduction in military expenditures, the reallocation of resources toward education, jobs, housing, the environment, the infrastructure, and other human needs; and the reordering of national priorities.
• Economic conversion and the restructuring of the economy.
• The need for significant reductions in conventional arms and forces.
• The prevention of military intervention and the strengthening of international cooperation and peacekeeping structures.
• The dangers of nuclear weapons production at Department of Energy plants, including the history of environmental contamination and public health risks, and the problem of radioactive waste storage and disposal.

In a constantly changing world, citizens must be informed and must take responsibility for shaping national policies. To that end, the Alliance serves as a center, for both the public and the media, for information about national security issues and local activities. We provide education on

• cutting the military budget
• redefining national security
• promoting alternatives to war
• the proliferation of both nuclear and conventional weapons
• America's role in the world
• economic conversion and reinvestment
• a comprehensive test ban
• the abolition of nuclear weapons
• the history of environmental contamination at nuclear weapons production plants

The military budget is the primary focus of our work and the common thread linking our diverse member organizations. The Alliance is unique in that we are the only organization on Long Island that is informing the public about the harmful effects the U.S. military budget has on the Long Island economy. We bring the issue home by showing Long Islanders how policies made in Washington D.C. affect us here in Nassau and Suffolk counties. We make the connection between the ever-increasing military budget and the ever-decreasing budgets for much needed social programs.

The Alliance has published three major research papers pertaining to Long Island and the military budget:

• Long Island Defense Cutbacks: Outlooks and Options
• Reinvest in Long Island
• Long Island's Sustainability Industries

The Alliance encourages citizen participation by suggesting a range of opportunities for action. Through our efforts, thousands of Long Islanders have signed petitions to stop nuclear weapons; to reinvest the peace dividend on Long Island; and to abolish nuclear weapons. Thousands have attended rallies; contacted their congressional representatives; supported the Alliance; and become active in the work for peace and justice. Our work with young people in particular keeps before us our mission to work for a more peaceful and just world for future generations.

The Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives has a strong record of public education on peace and national security issues; of sustained collaboration with other constituencies; of media credibility; and of ongoing member involvement. We give voice to the concerns of many Long Islanders, thus enabling people to overcome the cynicism and frustration many feel about the role of government and the state of American politics. Our work affirms citizen responsibility for our shared public life.

• American for Democratic Action, LI Chapter
• Central American Refugees Committee
• Citizens Campaign for the Environment
• Conscience Bay Meeting Religious Society of Friends
• Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island
• Five Towns Forum
• Gray Panthers
• Great Neck SANE/Peace Action
• Hofstra University Peace Committee
• Interfaith Nutrition Network
• Justice & Peace Commission, Diocese of Rockville Centre
• League of Women Voters, Hempstead East
• League of Women Voters, Huntington
• League of Women Voters of Nassau County
• Long Island Cares
• Pax Christi Long Island
• Physicians for Social Responsibility, Nassau County
• St. Mary's Peace and Justice Committee, East Islip
• Save Our World
• South Country Peace Group
• WomanSpace

Robert B. Lepley, Executive Director
Megan O'Handley, Assistant Director
Margaret Melkonian, Consultant
Nancy Baumel, Office Assistant