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Rolla Peace News

January 25, 2022
Dear Friends:
Editor's note: Please consider writing for our newsletter. It's always very exciting to be able to publish submissions from our readers.

Webperson's note: If you are having trouble reading this, it is posted at
http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter012522.html
In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2022
2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) From Our Readers: Climate Catastrophe
          b) Taliban Meets With US and European Diplomats in Norway
          c) With US Support, Saudi Coalition Bombs Yemen, Again
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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2022

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM (and most subsequent Thursdays until Peace is established). Please join us this Thursday in saying NO MORE WARS — LET PEACE PREVAIL. The temperature is predicted to be around 40. If you do not feel comfortable joining us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign.

Note 1: Since there are so few of us, generally 2 or 3, no need to cancel; but let's maintain social distancing.

Note 2: In case of inclement weather, vigils may be canceled or terminated early.

2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) From Our Readers: Climate Catastrophe
          b) Taliban Meets With US and European Diplomats in Norway
          c) With US Support, Saudi Coalition Bombs Yemen, Again

From Our Readers: Climate Catastrophe

I received several very nice comments about the Climate Catastrophe Essay I discussed last week:

“That's a good essay and I hope many people see it”
My response: Thank you. I hope many will see it too.
“I'm going to have to take a deeper look at the Avoiding Extinction section — there is a lot there.”
My response: Yes, please do! I can't think of many more important tasks that confront us then avoiding extinction.
“I got a grin out of your ‘take it from an unrepentant conspiracy theorist...’ bit.”
My response: The phrase, “conspiracy theorist” is generally used to shut people up and avoid responding to unorthodox ideas. It is rarely accompanied by any reasonable explanation of why the “theory” might be wrong or why it is a conspiracy.

I prefer the word “conjecture” (an educated guess made in the absence of facts) to “theory.”

And here's a quote from Bertrand Russell: “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
“[I was] hit by this line: ‘belief does not necessarily imply comprehension.’ I think that is true for myself and climate change — I believe it — I envision it — I expect it and dread it — but do I really comprehend it? And if I do, I wonder, why am I not running through the streets crying out for change?”
My response: I think the work you do for the climate is far more effective than “running through the streets crying out for change.” In fact, it IS “crying out for change.” Maybe you would write us a few paragraphs on the work you do for the climate.

“Belief does not necessarily imply comprehension” is Joseph Conrad's line, not mine. Probably true for all of us. Definitely true for me. Here's an example:
When I first went to Iraq (1999 if memory serves) I was told what to expect, and I believed; but seeing an infant lying on a hospital bed, too weak and too dehydrated to cry, and hearing the doctor explain that there was nothing they could do, there was not enough medicine to go around: That was comprehension. That was when I understood what a terrible deadly weapon sanctions can be.

Strange. 20 years later that baby still haunts me. How powerful are the dead!

Here's a quote from an anonymous Iraqi: “The whole world is responsible for these murders, and a day will come that we say to the world, ‘You supported Americans who killed us.’”

And one from former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Denis Halliday: “We kill people with sanctions. They’re not a substitute for war—they are a form of warfare.”
Taliban Meets With US and European Diplomats in Norway

A three-day round of closed door negotiations between the Taliban and the West began in Norway on Sunday. We pray for successful negotiations that will facilitate the return to Afghanistan of almost $10 billion of Afghan money being held mostly in the United States.

Without the return of this money, Afghans face a bleak winter with little to eat and possible mass starvation.

As I have pointed out before, we would be far better off with Afghans as friends than as enemies. Starving people is not the way to make friends.

With US Support, Saudi Coalition Bombs Yemen, Again

Last week, the Saudi coalition, under the leadership of Saudi Arabia and with diplomatic and matériel support of the United States, bombed the crap out of Yemen with made-in-the-USA bombs, killing women, children and other civilians.

Yemen is one of the world's poorest countries and has been declared by many to be the world's worst humanitarian disaster. The UN Population Fund estimates that over 300,000 Yemenis have died in these bombings since 2015.

Actually, the War Against Yemen goes back (at least) to 1990 when Yemen voted in the UN Security Council against Resolution 678 endorsing the first US War Against Iraq. A United States diplomat told the Yemeni ambassador, “That was the most expensive ‘no’ vote you ever cast.” Within three days, a US aid program of $70 million to one of the world's poorest countries was terminated.

30 years later, Yemenis are still paying the price for voting against a war which totally destroyed Iraq's ability to provide it's people with potable water, thereby killing hundreds of thousands of young children through diarrheal disease.

It's a shame that in the United States people don't care about the lives of Yemeni and Iraqi women and children nearly as much as they care about freedom for Afghan women who are now facing starvation.

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Wage peace,
Tom
yushasager (at) yahoo.com 

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